Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has entered into a multiyear AI content licensing agreement with News Corp that could generate up to $50 million per year for the media company that owns the Wall Street Journal among many other major publications.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta Platforms has secured a comprehensive AI content licensing deal with News Corp, the parent company of the Journal, in an arrangement that will compensate the media giant with up to $50 million annually. The agreement represents one of the most significant partnerships between major technology firms and traditional media organizations as AI continues to reshape the digital landscape.
According to individuals with knowledge of the arrangement, the partnership will extend for a minimum of three years and grants Meta access to News Corp content from both the United States and the UK. The deal serves dual purposes for the social media and tech giant, allowing the company to retrieve current information for users of its AI products while also providing access to archival content for training its AI models.
The financial terms of this agreement underscore the growing recognition among technology companies of the substantial value that professionally produced news content brings to their AI systems. Media content has become increasingly important for training AI models and supplying real-time information about current events through chatbots and other AI-powered tools that users rely upon for up-to-date information.
News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson provided hints about the deal during a presentation at a Morgan Stanley conference on Monday. “We have one very public horizontal deal,” Thomson stated, while also indicating that the company has made significant progress in other negotiations. “You won’t have too long to wait” for additional details, he added, suggesting more announcements may be forthcoming.
This latest agreement builds upon News Corp’s previous foray into AI content licensing. In 2024, the media company signed a deal with OpenAI that was reported at the time to be valued at more than $250 million over a five-year period, demonstrating the substantial revenue potential these partnerships can generate for content creators.
Meta confirmed to Breitbart News that a deal with News Corp had been signed. A spokesperson also provided a company post explaining its approach to media deals:
“We’re beginning to offer a wider variety of real-time content on Meta AI — from global, breaking news to entertainment, lifestyle stories, and more. When you ask Meta AI news-related questions, you’ll now receive information and links that draw from more diverse content sources to help you discover timely and relevant content tailored to your interests.
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As the first step in our content expansion, we’re partnering with a variety of outlets — CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, the People Inc. portfolio of media brands, The Daily Caller, The Washington Examiner, USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. We’ll continue to add new partnerships and explore new features to enhance the experience for the people who use our products.”
The way AI is transforming the media industry is a sign of the technology’s power to impact practically every part of the global economy. The importance of conservatives understanding and harnessing the power of AI is so great that Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written a book on the topic, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI.
In Code Red, Hall lays out the conservative approach to AI in the economy, education, and especially politics. In a recent article, the author explained how Democrats will attempt to weaponize fears of AI job loss to swing the midterm elections:
The political playbook has three parts:
- Convince Americans that mass AI job loss is inevitable.
- Channel that fear and ennui into galvanizing support for Universal Basic Income (UBI) redistribution in the long-term.
- Co-opt populist concerns over AI data centers driving up electricity and water bills for everyday Americans in the short-term.
The strategy, years in the making, is backed by hundreds of millions of dollars of left-leaning Silicon Valley cash and a sprawling ecosystem of advocacy groups and nonprofits, which I document in my new book, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI (HarperCollins). The three-pronged approach to create fear and uncertainty is already kicking into high gear.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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