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News Corp and OpenAI sign multi-year global content partnership

News Corp gave OpenAI access to current and archived content from The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post and other mastheads. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years.

NEW YORK, May 22, 2024 - News Corp and OpenAI announced a multi-year agreement to bring News Corp news content to OpenAI. OpenAI has permission to display content from News Corp mastheads in response to user questions and to enhance its products. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years; the companies did not confirm a price.12

Terms of the deal

OpenAI will receive access to current and archived content from News Corp's major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Investor's Business Daily, FN and the New York Post. In the UK it covers The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, and in Australia The Australian, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser and Herald Sun. The partnership does not include content from News Corp's other businesses.1

News Corp also agreed to share journalistic expertise to help ensure high journalism standards are present across OpenAI's offering.1 Yahoo's report of the Journal's story said the deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years, and described News Corp's content as coming to OpenAI under a multiyear licensing deal.2

Background

Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, said at announcement that OpenAI values News Corp's history in reporting breaking news.1 The deal followed licensing agreements with Dotdash Meredith, the Financial Times and others, while The New York Times and other newspapers had sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.2 In March 2026 News Corp signed a separate AI licensing deal with Meta that was reported at up to $50 million a year.

What it means for data sellers

The News Corp deal is the benchmark that other sellers cite, and also the one most often misread. The dollar figure is a press report of potential value, not a published contract, and it covers a very large archive across many brands.

For smaller sellers, the useful points are structural. The license combined display rights with product use, drew a clear boundary around what was in scope, and left News Corp free to sign other buyers later. Defining scope tightly protects the rest of a seller's business.

This entry is a news summary. SellYourAIData was not involved in the deal.

How the deal came together

  1. The companies announced the deal. On May 22, 2024 News Corp and OpenAI announced a multi-year agreement.
  2. OpenAI gained display and product rights. OpenAI may display News Corp content in answers and use it to enhance its products.
  3. Current and archived content were included. The deal spans WSJ, Barron's, MarketWatch, the New York Post, The Times, The Australian and others.
  4. The price was reported separately. The Wall Street Journal reported a value of more than $250 million over five years.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • The largest known publisher deal paid for archives and current content together.
  • Scope was limited to news mastheads, and News Corp's other businesses stayed out.
  • A reported price can be larger than anything announced. Treat it as a ceiling for comparison.

Sources

Every numbered reference above points to an entry here. Figures come from these pages as of the date shown at the top of the article. Where a source reports a number it got from unnamed people, the text says so.

  1. News Corp and OpenAI Sign Landmark Multi-Year Global Partnership (News Corp, May 2024)
  2. News Corp Inks OpenAI Licensing Deal Potentially Worth More Than $250 Million (Yahoo News, May 2024)

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About the AI Data Deal Tracker

SellYourAIData tracks publicly reported sales and licenses of data to AI companies, with the price, terms and sources for each. Entries are checked against public reporting and updated as deals change. SellYourAIData was not involved in this deal. To ask what your company's data could sell for, get a free valuation. To report a deal, contact us.