Washington Post Taps Veritone for Archiving & Licensing
The Washington Post has selected Veritone to manage its content licensing and digital archives. The move signals that major newsrooms now view their vast video archives as active revenue sources, not just static storage. It highlights a growing demand for enterprise-grade platforms that can monetize legacy content through robust search, metadata, and licensing tools.
The multi-year, global agreement tasks Veritone with representing The Washington Post's video content for all global licensing opportunities. This includes both breaking news coverage and extensive archival footage covering politics, culture, health, and science. Shawn Polk, Global Head of Content Licensing at The Washington Post, emphasized that the partnership provides a clear framework for licensing that reflects the newspaper's editorial standards. Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg noted their role is to support the "responsible licensing" of the Post's historical content. Veritone's AI-powered aiWARE platform is central to the deal, designed to make the Post's vast archives more discoverable for creators and media partners seeking to license content. The platform automates the creation of detailed metadata, including facial recognition and logo detection, which radically speeds up search and retrieval of specific moments. While financial terms were not disclosed, Veritone is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: VERI) with a market cap of $269 million. This move is part of a larger strategy to expand revenue streams as the company pushes towards profitability. This partnership reflects a significant industry trend where news and media organizations are increasingly viewing their archives as dynamic revenue sources rather than static liabilities. Veritone has secured similar deals with other major content owners, including U.S. Soccer, CBS News, and the NCAA, to monetize their video libraries. The core technology enables what Veritone calls "direct and indirect monetization." Direct monetization involves licensing clips for use in documentaries or advertisements, while indirect monetization uses archived content to enhance new productions, reducing the cost of acquiring stock footage.
