"CNN" licenses its content to Google as part of an AI partnership

CNN announced a multi-year agreement with Google granting it expanded rights to use the network's content in experimental AI features, in exchange for compensation. The value of the deal and the products involved were not specified. The move comes amid a 34% annual decline in publisher traffic from Google Search, as Google expands its pilot program to include over 400 publications.

CNN announced a multi-year agreement with Google that grants the latter expanded rights to use the network's content in experimental AI features. The network stated that the partnership includes compensation for providing its journalism and using its intellectual property, and aims to test new ways to reach and engage audiences through Google products. Sam Felix, Google's head of partnerships and business development, presented the agreement as a way to explore changing methods of news discovery. The announcement did not specify the deal's value, which Google products will use the network's reports, or whether the rights include model training. The Wrap website linked the move to publishers seeking compensation for content used by AI companies, coinciding with a decline in traffic from search engines. Citing Chartbeat data, the site reported a 34% year-over-year drop in publisher page views from Google Search. In a separate report, Nieman Lab noted that Google expanded its news pilot program to include over 400 publications globally, among them CNN, Financial Times, Axios, Forbes, and local newsrooms in the US.