People Inc Forges AI Licensing Deal with Microsoft as Google Traffic Drops

Why It Matters

The partnership gives Microsoft a vetted source of high‑quality content for Copilot while underscoring a shift toward paid‑for‑content models that could reshape AI data sourcing, and it highlights the growing importance of licensing revenue for publishers as organic traffic from Google declines.

Summary

People Inc., a leading U.S. media publisher owned by IAC, signed an AI licensing deal with Microsoft, becoming a launch partner in Microsoft’s new publisher content marketplace where AI services pay per use for content. The agreement follows a prior deal with OpenAI and arrives as Google’s AI‑driven Search Overviews reduced People’s search traffic from 54% to 24% of total visits. People has been blocking AI crawlers via Cloudflare, forcing AI firms to negotiate content deals, and reported a 9% rise in digital revenue to $269 million, with licensing revenue up 24% in Q3, alongside the acquisition of food‑media publisher Feedfeed.