Amazon to pay New York Times $25M/year: Here's why
What's the story
Amazon has signed a major deal with The New York Times (NYT), paying between $20 million and $25 million annually for access to its content. The agreement includes articles as well as sports stories from The Athletic. This content will be used to train Amazon's artificial intelligence (AI) models and enhance features like Alexa's news summaries.
Financial implications
Agreement boosts NYT's revenue
The deal highlights the growing importance of premium journalism in the AI space, with NYT's revenue expected to rise by nearly 1% this year. Other tech giants such as OpenAI have also struck similar deals with publishers. However, despite these agreements, NYT is still embroiled in legal battles with some AI companies over copyright issues.
Editorial stance
NYT CEO stresses importance of the deal
NYT's CEO Meredith Kopit Levien has been vocal about the need for fair compensation for quality reporting. She reiterated this stance in a note to staff when the Amazon deal was announced. "The Amazon deal is consistent with our long-held principle that high-quality journalism is worth paying for," Levien said, emphasizing NYT's commitment to valuing its content appropriately amid the changing media landscape.