Dow Jones Quietly Creates Publishing's AI Gold Mine

Dow Jones built a secret weapon for publishers. Their AI marketplace now connects 5,000 content creators with deep-pocketed corporations. The number tripled in just six months.

The operation lurks inside Factiva, Dow Jones' business intelligence arm. CEO Almar Latour confirmed the initiative in an Axios interview Monday. His tone suggested this was merely the beginning.

Factiva already maintains relationships with 30,000 news and data sources globally. It serves hundreds of enterprise clients. This existing network gave Dow Jones a massive head start in the race to monetize content in the AI era.

Their first product strikes directly at publishers' greatest fear. "Smart Summary" creates AI-generated content summaries while maintaining attribution and compensation. Publishers get paid. Corporations get concise information. Everyone walks away happy.

Dow Jones avoids AI companies for now. Latour's brief comment—"That's coming"—hints at future expansion. Current partners span 200 countries and 32 languages, from global players like Associated Press to specialized agencies like Switzerland's AWP Finanznachrichten AG.

The competition scrambles to catch up. TollBit raised $24 million to build a similar marketplace. ProRata created a search engine using only licensed content. Fox Corp launched Verify, a blockchain platform tracking content usage online.

Latour believes size matters. Dow Jones leverages decades of relationships with both publishers and corporate clients. These connections began paying dividends when Smart Summary discussions started in 2023.

Parent company News Corp takes no chances. They struck a lucrative OpenAI licensing deal valued at over $250 million while simultaneously suing Perplexity for copyright infringement. The strategy: partner when paid, sue when copied.

Latour's dealbreaker remains simple: "recognition of value." He demands monetary compensation for information used—including content scraped without permission in the past. The message echoes across publishers' boardrooms: our words have worth.

The marketplace arrives as publishers wage war against AI companies worldwide. Just last week, a coalition of major U.S. news organizations sued AI firm Cohere. The lawsuit, organized by the News Media Alliance, signals unified resistance against uncompensated content usage.

Why this matters:

• Publishers finally gain leverage against tech giants who built AI models on their uncompensated content
• Traditional media companies transform from AI victims to AI gatekeepers through collective action
• The future of AI training data shifts from "scrape first, apologize later" to "license first, build later"

Read on, my dear:

• axios: Dow Jones expands AI marketplace to nearly 5,000 publishers