News Corp sold content for AI training
Reports say News Corp licensed Wall Street Journal and New York Post content to Meta for roughly $150 million as part of AI training deals, following an earlier $250 million agreement with OpenAI. The social briefing cites the Arslan Iqbal post describing the sale and its place in publishers’ growing role as content providers for AI systems (x.com).
News Corp has struck a multiyear deal letting Meta use its journalism for artificial intelligence products, with reports valuing it at up to $50 million a year. (engadget.com) The agreement covers content from The Wall Street Journal and other News Corp brands in the United States and United Kingdom, and Engadget reported that Meta confirmed the deal on March 3, 2026. (engadget.com) According to that report, the term is three years, which puts the total value at roughly $150 million if Meta pays the full annual amount. News Corp did not publicly disclose the financial terms. (engadget.com) The deal gives Meta something it has been buying across the industry: licensed reporting that can feed chatbot answers and model training. Press Gazette reported on March 24, 2026 that publishers are increasingly signing such agreements while also suing companies they accuse of scraping without permission. (pressgazette.co.uk) News Corp took that approach earlier with OpenAI. On May 22, 2024, the companies announced a multiyear partnership giving OpenAI access to current and archived content from outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, Financial News, and the New York Post. (newscorp.com) That OpenAI agreement was widely reported at about $250 million over five years, though News Corp’s own announcement did not disclose a price. CNBC reported the estimate when the deal was announced in May 2024. (cnbc.com) Meta had already started rebuilding ties with publishers through artificial intelligence even after years of pulling back from news on its social platforms. Reuters reported in October 2024 that Meta’s chatbot would use Reuters content to answer real-time questions about news and current events. (inc.com) News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson has framed the company’s posture toward artificial intelligence firms as both commercial and legal. At Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media and Telecom conference in March 2026, he said News Corp had a “woo and a sue” strategy for companies that license content versus those that scrape it without permission. (engadget.com) That line matches News Corp’s court fights. Press Gazette reported that Dow Jones and the New York Post, both News Corp properties, are among publishers pursuing legal action against Perplexity over alleged unauthorized use of their work. (pressgazette.co.uk) The result is a market where the same publisher can sell access to one artificial intelligence company and sue another. News Corp’s Meta deal shows how much premium news archives and live reporting are now worth to companies building chatbots. (pressgazette.co.uk)
