Microsoft is developing a pilot project called the "Publisher Content Marketplace" (PCM), Axios reports. The platform would let publishers sell their content to AI products like Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft presented the idea to a group of US publishers at a partner meeting in Monaco last week, where one slide read, "You deserve to be paid on the quality of your IP." There's no confirmed launch date for the PCM pilot yet. Over time, the marketplace could open up to more partners and other AI buyers.
Up to now, most large AI companies have paid flat license fees instead of royalties based on usage. Microsoft already partners with outlets like Reuters and Axel Springer for Copilot. OpenAI and other AI companies also pay license fees to a select group of publishers—a practice journalism researcher Jeff Jarvis has called "pure lobbying."
