Credit: Alban on Unsplash Google is paying about 100 digital publishers when their content feeds its AI answers. For several small and mid-sized sites in the pilot, the payments come to less than a tenth of 1% of their advertising revenue, The Information reported on Tuesday. Alix Coutures and Catherine Perloff reported, citing people familiar with the tests, that Google pays by how much each source contributes to an answer. The pilot covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini.
TNW has not independently verified the figures. Who earns what Payouts vary widely, according to The Information. One publisher that joined early is making more than $1m a year. A more recent entrant has earned $50,000 to $60,000.
Several smaller sites have received less than $1,000 over several months. Sites covering niche subjects with strong followings, such as anime and gaming, tend to earn more, publishers said. Several larger publishers have declined to join, The Information reported. They hope staying out will push Google towards a better offer.
Publishers in the pilot also said the payments are hard to follow. Earnings appear each month in Google Search Console, but it is not clear what counts as a meaningful contribution to an answer. A pilot Digiday found first Digiday first reported the scheme, called the AI contribution pilot, on 14 September. Jessica Davies and Sara Guaglione wrote that Google pays when a publisher’s content “significantly” contributes to an AI response.
Publishers told them the system was a black box. Google confirmed to Digiday that the scheme is an early-stage pilot. The company said it is testing how best to reward high-quality content. The payments come on top of the traffic and tools it already provides, Google said.
Pressure from all sides Google’s AI search features also face regulators and lawsuits. In June, the UK’s competition regulator ruled that Google must let publishers opt out of its AI search features. The European Commission is investigating the effect of those features on web traffic, and has been asking publishers whether Google’s opt-out works. Penske Media, which owns Rolling Stone and Variety, is suing Google over AI Overviews.
Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said last week that micropayments will never be enough for publishers. Publishers are also lobbying Washington. This week, executives from more than 300 news publishers lobbied Congress for a bill that would ban AI stealth bots. In July, Cloudflare gave AI crawlers a September deadline to pay publishers or face a block.
