Perplexity is expanding its Publishers’ Program by adding 15 new media partners, including the LA Times, Adweek, and Mexico News Daily. This initiative aims to create a fair information ecosystem and allows publishers to share in ad revenue while receiving performance metrics. Jessica Chan, head of publisher partnerships, highlighted the crucial role of news organizations in providing factual information.
New partners also include Pris Media, Lee Enterprises, and The Independent, among others. However, there are concerns about internal communication, as staff at some organizations were unaware of the partnerships until public announcements. Major entities like The New York Times and Dow Jones are notably absent due to ongoing legal disputes with Perplexity regarding unauthorized content access.
Perplexity utilizes AI to summarize content, which has led to accusations of plagiarism and inaccuracies, although the company claims to cite sources. Financial agreements with publishers remain undisclosed to avoid competitive disadvantages. In contrast, OpenAI's ChatGPT Search offers publishers more control over their content.
As the program grows, Perplexity is reportedly raising $500 million at a $9 billion valuation, despite an annual recurring revenue of around $50 million as of October. The new partners represent diverse interests from the UK, Japan, Spain, and Latin America, enhancing the platform's knowledge base and user engagement.
Participating publishers will benefit from ad revenue sharing, access to APIs, developer support, and a year of free Perplexity Enterprise Pro. They will also receive data analytics for tracking content performance. Since launching in July, Perplexity has seen significant interest from over 100 publishers. Jessica Chan, who previously worked at LinkedIn, will lead the program's expansion, emphasizing the collaborative potential between technology companies and news publishers.
Perplexity also acknowledges partnerships with organizations like Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and beehiiv, which support research on responsible AI use in journalism.
