Forty major media groups have joined a global coalition of publishers to protect their journalism from unauthorized artificial intelligence use. The group announced this major expansion of the SPUR (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights) AI copyright coalition from Paris on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
Specifically, the new members include “The New York Times”, “The Economist”, and “Agence France-Presse” (AFP). Together, these publishers want to stop AI companies from using their journalistic work without permission.
Rapid Growth for the SPUR AI Copyright Coalition
Publishers originally launched the coalition, known as SPUR (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights), in February. Prior to this week, the group already featured prominent media organizations. For instance, the “BBC”, “The Financial Times”, and the “Associated Press” (AP) news agency were already active members.
Now, this latest expansion doubles the total number of participating publishers. Consequently, the coalition carries much greater weight in the global media landscape.
Furthermore, the SPUR AI copyright coalition has outlined three clear objectives for its members. First, it aims to help media companies track their content across platforms. Second, it works to highlight illegal copyright theft. Finally, the group seeks to negotiate commercial deals with the AI groups behind popular services such as ChatGPT or Claude.
Demanding Fair Compensation from AI Models
Media executives argue that AI platforms depend heavily on professional reporting. However, publishers currently lack the tools to secure fair pay for that foundational work.
David Buttle serves as the co-founder and spokesperson for the SPUR Coalition. In a statement, he highlighted the growing support for the initiative. Buttle said:
There is rapidly growing momentum behind our effort to build a fairer, more sustainable information economy.
Moreover, he pointed out the financial imbalance between newsrooms and AI developers. Buttle added:
We know that high-quality journalism forms the foundations of AI models yet, as it stands, publishers have no mechanism to ensure they are fairly compensated for their work.
Content Traceability & Public Trust
Similarly, news agency leaders emphasized the daily value that verified journalism brings to AI tools. Fabrice Fries, the chairman and chief executive officer of AFP, addressed this issue directly in a statement. He stressed that “each day, millions of people rely on AI assistants for information gathered and verified by news agency journalists”.
Therefore, Fries believes that AI companies must respect the source of their information. Fries stated:
That original journalistic value must be recognised, credited and fairly compensated.
Content traceability is not only a matter of intellectual property; it is also essential to maintaining public trust.
