As the web becomes increasingly agentic, one of the key differentiators in AI experiences will be the quality of the content used to make decisions.
If you ask AI whether two medications interact or whether a financial policy applies in a specific situation, the quality of the answer depends on access to trustworthy content. If you are researching a considered purchase, access to trusted sources enables AI systems to provide more accurate, contextual guidance – shaping the ultimate decision. We need to re-create the fundamentals around sourcing information, assessing credibility, and incorporating only the most useful intelligence as we build agentic systems. Our own testing with Microsoft Copilot shows that premium content meaningfully improves response quality.
The challenge is that the shift in expectations for accessing premium content puts pressure on the long-standing relationship between publishers and the platforms that distribute their work. The open web was built on an implicit value exchange where publishers made content accessible, and distribution channels - like search - helped people find it. That model does not translate cleanly to an AI-first world, where answers are increasingly delivered in a conversation. At the same time, much of the authoritative content lives behind paywalls or within specialized archives. As the AI web grows, publishers need sustainable, transparent ways to govern how their premium content is used and to license it when it makes the most sense.
To address this challenge, we are introducing the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), a solution that gives publishers a new revenue stream, provides AI systems with scaled access to premium content, and delivers better responses for consumers.
PCM is designed to empower publishers with a transparent economic framework for licensing premium content into AI products. The result is a direct value exchange: publishers will be paid on delivered value, and AI builders gain scalable access to licensed premium content that improves their products. Publishers define licensing and usage terms, while AI builders discover and license content for specific grounding scenarios. PCM also provides usage-based reporting, enabling publishers to understand how content has been valued in the past and where it can provide increased value in the future, all through a feedback loop within the marketplace.
PCM will support publishers of all sizes, from large national and international organizations to specialized and independent voices. Participation is voluntary, with transparent usage reporting, and publisher-defined licensing terms. And, publishers always retain ownership of their content and editorial independence. All of this is intended to scale to avoid the challenge of pairwise agreements between every publisher and every AI builder and agent.
Over the past several months, we have been co-designing PCM with leading U.S. publishers, including The Associated Press, Business Insider Inc, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc, USA TODAY Co., and Vox Media Inc, among others. Their input helped shape early decisions around licensing, pricing, governance, analytics, and onboarding and have improved the product considerably. We started with a focused set of scenarios in enterprise and consumer versions of Microsoft Copilot by grounding specific responses with licensed content and running experiments to validate assumptions before scaling. And now, we are beginning to onboard demand partners, including Yahoo.
At this stage of the pilot, we are ready to expand further and would love to work with values-aligned partners on both supply and demand sides of the marketplace.
This is just the beginning. We will expand PCM to those who share our principles that the AI web should respect quality content for the service it provides the consumer, ensuring the work of journalists, creators, and subject-matter experts plays a durable role in the future of the AI web. We’re eager to work with more publishers and AI builders and continue to evolve the approach based on what we learn.
If you are interested in learning more about PCM, please click here.
