REPORTED: Based on Reuters and Press Gazette reports. Press Gazette is itself a new associate member of SPUR.
The New York Times, Agence France-Presse and The Economist “on Monday joined more than 40 publishers in a coalition aimed at preventing AI firms from using or profiting from their content without permission”, Reuters reports [1].
The group is the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR) coalition. According to Reuters, it was “launched in February, now has more than 80 members across over 20 countries” [1]. Its founding members include the Financial Times, the BBC and the Associated Press [1][2].
What SPUR does
Reuters says SPUR “is funded entirely by its members” and “is developing industry-wide standards and technical systems to help publishers track and control how AI companies use their content and facilitate licensing agreements, according to its website” [1].
Press Gazette describes it as a coalition “seeking to agree common standards for AI licensing deals”. Other new members it names include The Atlantic, ITV News and The Observer [2]. Disclosure: Press Gazette says it “has also joined as an associate member” [2].
What members say
Rebecca Grossman-Cohen of The New York Times said: “Intellectual property protection and technological advancement can and must co-exist.” [1][2] Reuters gives her title as head of strategic partnerships and chief of staff [1]. Press Gazette calls her SVP of strategic partnerships and executive operations [2].
SPUR co-founder David Buttle told Press Gazette that “publishers have no mechanism to ensure they are fairly compensated for their work. In many cases, their output is literally being stolen.” [2]
Tracking how AI uses content
SPUR’s Content Telemetry Standard is described on its website as “An open standard for reporting how AI agents use content — from retrieval through grounding, citation, presentation, and user engagement.” Version 1.0 was “published 2 September 2026”. The standard is “Stewarded by the SPUR Coalition” under the Apache License 2.0 [3].
Telemetry here means AI systems automatically logging and reporting back each time they fetch, use, cite or show a publisher’s content.
According to Reuters, the standard is meant to “standardize how AI agents record and report their use of media content, as part of efforts to ensure creators are compensated for their work” [1].
The wider fight
Reuters notes that “Earlier this month, USA Today and several newspapers it owns sued OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement”, and that OpenAI and Microsoft face similar claims from news organisations, including the New York Times [1].
Sources
- Reuters via CNA, “NYT, Economist among publishers joining coalition to curb unpaid AI use”, 12 October 2026. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/nyt-economist-among-publishers-joining-coalition-curb-unpaid-ai-use-6454436
- Press Gazette (Charlotte Tobitt), “New York Times among surge of sign-ups to publisher AI coalition SPUR”, 13 October 2026. https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/new-york-times-among-surge-of-sign-ups-to-publisher-ai-coalition-spur/
- Content Telemetry Standard, Version 1.0, 2 September 2026. https://contenttelemetry.org/
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