New York Times and Others Join SPUR AI Coalition
The New York Times, Agence France-Presse, and The Economist joined the SPUR coalition to prevent AI firms from using publisher content without permission.
The Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR) coalition expanded its membership on Monday as The New York Times, Agence France-Presse, and The Economist joined the group. The member-funded coalition, launched in February, now comprises over 80 publishers across more than 20 countries, including the BBC, Financial Times, and Associated Press.
SPUR is developing industry-wide standards and technical systems to track how artificial intelligence firms use publisher content and to facilitate licensing agreements. This includes the recently introduced Content Telemetry Standard. The effort follows a Reuters Institute report showing a 33% global drop in Google organic-search referrals to over 2,500 websites between November 2024 and November 2025, as AI-generated search answers reduce referral traffic.
This collective action runs parallel to legal challenges against AI developers. The New York Times and USA Today have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft. Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, head of strategic partnerships and chief of staff at The New York Times, stated that "Intellectual property protection and technological advancement can and must co-exist."
