People Inc., one of the largest media publishers in the United States, has signed an artificial intelligence licensing agreement with Microsoft. The media company, which was formerly known as Dotdash Meredith, announced the deal on Tuesday. This announcement was part of its parent company IAC’s third-quarter earnings report.
Under this new agreement, People Inc. will become a launch partner in Microsoft’s publisher content marketplace. This marks the company’s second major AI deal, following a previous agreement it made with OpenAI last year.
Neil Vogel, the CEO of People Inc., described the new marketplace as a pay-per-use system where artificial intelligence companies can directly compensate publishers for the use of their content. He compared it to an a la carte model. Vogel praised Microsoft for its commitment to paying for content to support its AI initiatives. He also noted that Microsoft’s Copilot will be the first buyer in this new marketplace.
Vogel stated that being chosen as a partner is a strong endorsement of his company and the publishing industry. He emphasized the value of trusted content for creating high-quality artificial intelligence.
The Microsoft deal was announced alongside IAC’s earnings, which also revealed that Google Search’s AI Overviews feature has been negatively affecting the publisher’s web traffic. For the first time, People Inc. shared specific data with investors showing this decline. The data indicated that Google Search, which accounted for fifty-four percent of its traffic two years ago, dropped to just twenty-four percent in the past quarter.
Vogel explained that this new Microsoft agreement is different from the earlier OpenAI deal, which he characterized as more of an all-you-can-eat model. He expressed that People Inc. is happy with either approach. The most important thing for the company is that its work is respected and paid for. The specific financial terms of the Microsoft deal were not disclosed.
People Inc. has been critical of artificial intelligence companies that use media content without payment to fuel their products and train their models. Vogel recently criticized Google, calling the technology company a bad actor. He accused Google of using the same web crawler for its search engine and its AI features. Publishers are unable to block this crawler because Google Search still generates a significant portion of their website traffic.
In response, People Inc. has used technology from the web infrastructure provider Cloudflare to block other AI crawlers. This action has prompted AI companies to approach the publisher with content licensing deals. Back in September, Vogel attributed the company’s decision to use Cloudflare’s technology as a strategic move to push AI firms to negotiate. He noted that progress on deals was much further along after adopting this solution.
Vogel reiterated these comments during the recent earnings call with investors. He said that blocking AI crawlers has been very effective and has brought almost every relevant company to the negotiating table. He also suggested that more deals would be announced in the future.
In its financial report, IAC stated that People Inc. grew its digital revenue by nine percent to two hundred sixty-nine million dollars for the quarter. This growth was driven by performance marketing and licensing, which saw thirty-eight percent and twenty-four percent growth, respectively. IAC also noted its acquisition of a food-focused media publisher and influencer network called Feedfeed.