The Digiday Podcast

Episode: The top AI platforms for publishers, ranked
Date: January 20, 2026
Host(s): Kamiko McCoy (Senior Marketing Reporter), Tim Peterson (Executive Editor of Video & Audio)
Guests: Jessica Davis (Senior Media Editor), Sarah Guaglioni (Senior Media Reporter)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into Digiday's recently published scorecard ranking the top AI platforms from the perspective of publishers. Hosts Kamiko McCoy and Tim Peterson are joined by the scorecard's authors, Jessica Davis and Sarah Guaglioni, to discuss the major players—like OpenAI, Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others—their current deals with publishers, business models, and challenges. The team unpacks what made 2025 a pivotal year for AI/publisher partnerships, explores revenue realities, and provides an in-depth, ranked look at which platforms are (and are not) delivering meaningful value to the publishing industry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why 2025 Was an Inflection Year for AI-Publisher Deals

• 2025 marked a significant increase in tech platforms formalizing content licensing deals with publishers, with companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google entering the field late in the year.
  • Jessica: "It did feel like a real reset… 2024 feels like a long time ago in AI terms. There were really only a handful of deals with massive publishers… By the end of 2025, more structure and a better balance started to emerge." [08:56]
• The year saw both a greater diversity of publishers involved and more varied, creative deal structures.

2. Publisher Sentiment: Opportunity vs. Anxiety

• Large publishers view the landscape as increasingly competitive, with more offers and potential upside.
• Small-to-midsize publishers feel left behind as most deals target the largest digital media brands. Many struggle to get AI companies to even respond to outreach:
  • Sarah: "If you're mid-size, if you're smaller… I think you're still kind of worried about how the market is evolving and that you may not have a role in it… Calls and emails are going unanswered." [10:43]

3. Deal Terms: Emerging Non-Negotiables and Lack of Standardization

• Attribution and minimum requirements for citation are now standard asks in publisher contracts.
• Yet, every AI platform structures deals differently; little-to-no industry consensus exists on "table stakes."
  • Jessica: "There's definitely no sort of one size fits all. It's very much kind of a mix of different structures and deal sizes and terms." [13:00]
• Secrecy persists as platforms and publishers are reluctant to disclose deal terms, making it harder for standards to emerge. [14:34]

4. Revenue Reality Check: Is the Money Real?

• The money from AI licensing deals remains relatively small, often a fraction of a publisher's total revenue.
  • Sarah: "For anything simpler [than splashy big deals], it really is peanuts at this point… They're getting checks, but how much is in that? Nothing really to be super proud of, I would say, at this point." [16:24]
  • Jessica: "The economics… haven’t offset the damage done by, obviously, the main one is Google AI overviews… Whenever I've asked if it's really worth it, they've all laughed and been like, 'Of course not.'" [17:44]

5. Litigation and Leverage

• Multiple lawsuits from publishers (especially against OpenAI) are interpreted as a pressure mechanism, possibly yielding greater future leverage or better deals.
  • Jessica: "A lot of the pushes from Meta and Google are really about de-risking and sort of showing themselves to be doing something when there are lawsuits… and regulatory scrutiny on them now." [19:44]

Platform Rankings Breakdown

The team ranked platforms 8 to 1 using a detailed rubric considering publisher sentiment, deal quality, transparency, and future prospects. Below, each platform is summarized with its 'X factor' and notable moments.

8. Anthropic (Dishonorable Mention)

• Not engaging with publishers; opaque communication; absent from relevant industry discussions.
  • Jessica: "They haven't really engaged… It's certainly not one that comes up in conversation at all." [21:06]

7. Pro Rata

• Offers AI-powered on-site search upgrades for publishers, with modest ad revenue sharing; good feedback from partners but very little money involved.
  • Sarah: "It's really been a product upgrade for publishers… in terms of the money that's actually coming to them, very, very, very small." [22:15]

6. Perplexity

• Early innovator with a rev-share model that initially excited smaller publishers but failed to deliver on revenue; criticized for aggressive/opaque web crawling and involved in multiple lawsuits.
  • Sarah: "Perplexity's advertising business has not been very good… The cut publishers are getting is very small." [24:02]
  • Jessica: "Publishers… always flag [Perplexity] as one of the worst behaving crawlers… masking its crawler… that has kind of annoyed and frustrated a lot of publishers." [25:58]

5. Google

• Large but has few commercial deals/pilots; “Google AI overviews” have damaged publisher relationships. Publishers can't block AI scraping without dropping out of search—a nonstarter. EU regulatory pressure may shift things in the future.
  • Jessica: "The reason it got such a low score is… in the grand scheme of things, it's got a handful of deals, not enough to offset the damage… Economics-wise, nothing compared to OpenAI." [28:36]
  • Sarah: "Their hands are tied… They can't really do much beyond… not being in search." [31:49]

4. Amazon

• Deals (notably with the New York Times) have drawn attention; focused on Alexa Plus and shopping assistant Rufus. Details sparse, but willingness to do deals is a hopeful signal.
  • Sarah: "If it's good enough for the New York Times… it's probably a pretty big deal… I'm really curious to see what happens with Amazon and publishers this year." [33:05]
  • Jessica: "On a basic level… the money terms weren't right. It's definitely one to watch." [34:42]

3. Meta

• Known for an adversarial past with publishers, but recently made select licensing deals with fair offers and novel content delivery (publishers supply content directly, sidestepping crawlers). Skepticism persists but hope is renewed.
  • Jessica: "Meta… has had a very kind of vitriolic history with publishers. Because everyone else has been… so low with what they've managed to get… anyone is kind of like, okay, if they want to talk licensing, fantastic, we're here." [37:08]
  • Sarah: "Meta has a long history of paying publishers… For some reason, when these deals were announced, it seemed like, oh, great, here’s another big tech company that wants to pay us." [39:21]
  • Jessica: "Some partners… are still blocking [Meta’s] crawler, but supplying content via a server… which… makes it cheaper for the LLM and gives publishers more control." [41:11]

2. OpenAI

• The first to strike big licensing deals; pays the most (so far) and shares valuable data/tech insights with partners, but faces many lawsuits and has focused on big publishers only.
  • Sarah: "When you actually talk to people… they're like, 'OpenAI is paying people a lot of money.' So… on this scorecard, they have to be in the top spot because that's where the real money is coming from." [43:50]
  • Jessica: "They scored high… when there’s been… such a lack of transparency from some… OpenAI partnerships, it’s a two-way street… they’re getting a heads up on what tech is coming." [44:51]
  • Disney IP licensing signals broader dealmaking beyond news publishers. Anticipated ad product may open new rev-share for mid/long-tail publishers. [46:23]

1. Microsoft

• The surprise winner and "darling" of publisher sentiment. Applauded for flexibility, willingness to collaborate with publishers, and its emerging “pay per use” model. Publishers feel respected and hopeful, despite uncertainty over Copilot’s eventual real-world performance.
  • Sarah: "Every publishing exec… was so excited about what Microsoft was offering… What they're offering is still unclear… but the opportunity there for publishers people seemed really excited about." [48:45]
  • Jessica: "[Microsoft’s] message… is 'We want to work with you'… not a take-it-or-leave-it deal. It’s 'Let’s design and build this together.' That was a very different message from what they'd been getting until that point." [50:07]
  • Microsoft’s hiring of Julia Bazer, ex-Bloomberg, to oversee news product notably inspired industry confidence. [53:29]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On publisher leverage with Google:
  Sarah [31:49]: "What publisher is going to voluntarily… not have their pages indexed by Google search? …I think that's… the biggest challenge that they're facing right now… they haven't been able to split out… those crawlers."

• On deal secrecy:
  Jessica [14:34]: "There's still a lot of secrecy around the deals… I feel like when I talk to people, they don't know what other publishers are talking about with some of these companies… it makes it difficult to have table stakes."

• On the reality of the money:
  Jessica [17:44]: "I don't think that the economics… of any of these deals have offset some of the damage done by… Google AI overviews."

• On Meta’s publisher relationships:
  Sarah [39:21]: "Meta has in the past paid, especially news publishers, lots of money for content… That money then disappeared, you know, sort of overnight… and a lot of them ceased to exist in the same way."

• On Microsoft’s approach:
  Jessica [50:07]: "It's not 'Take it or leave it.' …'Let's design and build this together.' That was a very different message from what they'd been getting… So even though it sounds kind of idealistic, it’s what publishers needed to hear at the time."

Ranking Recap [54:33]

1. Microsoft: Pay-per-use model; collaborative, flexible, trusted.
2. OpenAI: Pays most, lots of deals, shares tech/data; but only with big publishers and marred by lawsuits.
3. Meta: Trusted less, but new willingness to license and fair terms; better tech integration.
4. Amazon: Big with NYT deal, but lacks transparency and broader rollout.
5. Google: Huge reach, few deals, and publisher leverage constrained.
6. Perplexity: Early innovator, but failed to deliver much revenue.
7. Pro Rata: Loved by partners, but very modest cash.
8. Anthropic: Simply not playing this game—yet.

Discussion Highlights with Timestamps

• AI ad arms race: ChatGPT introduces ads, Google follows suit: 01:30–05:57
• Publisher deal structures & sense of the market: 08:56–15:16
• Real value of AI licensing money for publishers: 16:24–19:27
• Litigation impacts on licensing approaches: 19:44–20:19
• Detailed ranking discussion: 20:19–54:33
• Closing thoughts & recap: 54:33–57:31

Tone and Atmosphere

The panel balances industry gravitas with healthy skepticism and humor. There's a mix of optimism for evolving partnerships and blunt realism about the limited financial impact—at least for now. The conversation is dense with publisher anecdotes and pithy asides, reflecting Digiday’s in-the-trenches reporting style.

For Further Reading

• Check out Digiday’s full “AI Platform Scorecard” on their website for deeper detail on each ranked platform.
• Stay tuned for future episodes as the team commits to revisiting the rankings as industry deals, technology, and regulatory environments rapidly evolve.

Summary by Digiday Podcast AI Summarizer — For listeners who wanted the core insights, candid quotes, and the lay of the land, all without sitting through 55 minutes.