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Perplexity launches publisher program with Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune and others

Perplexity said it would share advertising revenue with publishers whose content is cited in its answers. The first partners were Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune and Automattic, on multi-year terms.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 2024 - Perplexity announced a Publishers Program under which it will share advertising revenue with news publishers when its AI chatbot surfaces their content in answers. The first partners are Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune and Automattic, and the agreements are multi-year.1

Terms of the deal

TechCrunch reported that, as part of the multi-year deals, the publishers get access to Perplexity's APIs and developer support so they can build custom answer engines on their own sites, along with Enterprise Pro access for all employees. Perplexity had not yet begun displaying ads at announcement, and said they would arrive in the following months. Any money it makes from those ads is to be shared with publishers whose content is used to answer the query.1

Perplexity would not give the revenue-share figure, but head of business Dmitry Shevelenko said it would be a double-digit percentage.1 The company also works with ScalePost.ai, a platform that connects publishers and AI companies and gives publishers analytics on how Perplexity cites their content.1

Background

Shevelenko told TechCrunch that Perplexity had been exploring the program since January 2024, before publishers started leveling accusations, and that the business case was self-preservation: to keep surfacing accurate answers, Perplexity needs journalists to keep producing new facts.1 The program came while Perplexity faced criticism over scraping and attribution. It later grew, and USA Today Co. joined in July 2025, with content from its 200-plus local publications, according to the company's release.2

What it means for data sellers

The Perplexity program is a different model from a fixed-fee archive license. Payment depends on how often content is cited, and the amount depends on the buyer's own revenue. For a seller this can mean slower and smaller income at first, with an upside if the buyer's ad business grows.

Sellers weighing this kind of terms should ask for reporting on citations and a clear definition of revenue. They should also check whether technology access, such as APIs, is a meaningful part of the value.

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

How the deal came together

  1. Perplexity announced a revenue-share program. On July 30, 2024 Perplexity launched a Publishers Program with six launch partners.
  2. Payment depends on citations. Perplexity said it would share ad revenue when a publisher's content is used to answer a query.
  3. Partners received tools. Publishers got Perplexity API access, developer support and Enterprise Pro access for staff.
  4. The percentage stayed private. Perplexity described the share as a double-digit percentage without giving the figure.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Revenue-share deals pay only if the buyer earns, so a seller should ask when ads or subscriptions will launch.
  • Partners received tools as well as payment.
  • Perplexity was already facing accusations of scraping, and the program was partly a response.

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. Perplexity details plan to share ad revenue with outlets cited by its AI chatbot (TechCrunch, July 2024)
  2. Gannett I USA TODAY Network and Perplexity Announce Strategic AI Content Licensing Agreement (USA TODAY Co., July 2025)

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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.