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Microsoft expands Publisher Content Marketplace with Associated Press, Condé Nast, Hearst and other publishers

Microsoft announced the expansion of its Publisher Content Marketplace, where publishers license content to AI products and are paid based on usage. Publishers set their own terms and participation is voluntary.

REDMOND, February 4, 2026 Microsoft announced the expansion of its Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), a platform where publishers license content to AI products and are paid based on how it is used. No prices or revenue figures were published.1

Terms of the deal

Publishers define their own licensing and usage terms, participation is voluntary with opt-in and opt-out controls, and publishers receive usage-based reporting on how their content is valued. They are paid based on delivered value.1 The named publishers, which co-designed the marketplace with Microsoft, are Business Insider, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People Inc, The Associated Press, USA TODAY Co. and Vox Media, among others.1 No rate card was disclosed, and coverage noted the lack of detail on expected revenue.

Background

The marketplace followed individual AI licensing deals between publishers and technology companies, which were hard to scale across many sellers. Microsoft's approach is a two-sided marketplace in which publishers can set terms and AI products buy access. Other models in the market, such as Cloudflare's Pay per Crawl, use similar per-use pricing.

What it means for data sellers

Marketplaces change the sales motion from negotiating a contract to listing terms. A seller should compare the expected usage-based payout with a flat license and confirm what reporting it will receive. Smaller sellers that cannot negotiate bilateral deals may find marketplaces the more accessible route, but they should check whether terms are exclusive and how content is attributed.

How the deal came together

  1. Pilot with select publishers. Microsoft built the marketplace with a group of U.S. publishers that co-designed it.
  2. Publisher-defined terms. Each publisher sets its own licensing and usage terms and can opt in or out.
  3. Usage-based reporting. Publishers receive reporting on how their content is used and valued, and are paid based on delivered value.
  4. Expansion announced. Microsoft announced the expansion on February 4, 2026.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Usage-based marketplaces replace one-off negotiations but make revenue depend on how often content is used.
  • Co-designing the product with a buyer can give sellers influence over terms and reporting.
  • Ask for usage reporting, since it is the basis for pricing renewals.

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. Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace - Pay For AI To License Content (Search Engine Roundtable, February 2026)

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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.