Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey stated, “The New York Times’s complaint demonstrates the value of quality journalism to AI developers. These companies repurpose and monetize news content, competing with the very industry they are benefiting from. Quality journalism and GenAI can complement each other if approached collaboratively, but using journalism without permission or payment is unlawful, and certainly not fair use.”

In a White Paper released in October, an analysis commissioned by the Alliance found that there is heavy reliance on journalistic and creative content by AI training models along with verbatim text from articles found in AI outputs.  The findings support a legal claim, parallel to the same findings asserted in The New York Times’s complaint.

Coffey continued, “The value of quality journalism has been debated for years.  We are at a point where the question is not whether quality journalism should be compensated, rather a question of how much.  In the case of AI, copyright protected content used without authorization should be a priority in releasing these technologies to the public so that responsible innovation can live alongside responsible reporting.”

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The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,200 news, magazine, and digital media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Reports indicate meaningful monetary value is at stake and a willingness to limit license on display that comes with attribution commitments.

Coffey continued, “We represent the industry and are working on an option available to all publishers in a way that makes sense and provides equity and fairness. OpenAI is doing the right thing to ensure technology and quality journalism exist and thrive in harmony. Our members are exploring all options, and we are ensuring no one is left behind.”

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The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,200 news, magazine, and digital media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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The News/Media Alliance, which merged with MPA – The Association of Magazine Media in July 2022 – works with its members to advance news and magazine industry priorities through advocacy, critical research, resources and events that demonstrate the value and importance of supporting and preserving a free and independent press.

“We are delighted to welcome these 16 news, magazine, and digital media organizations to the Alliance family, and we are grateful for their support and their recognition of the need to share a voice on important issues facing the industry,” stated News/Media Alliance President & CEO Danielle Coffey. “The support of these innovative, multimedia businesses are invaluable as we continue to advocate on behalf of the industry and fight for the future of journalistic and creative content.”

The need to support and sustain quality journalism has reached a new level of urgency this year, as the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced yet another threat to publishers of original content. The Alliance published a White Paper in October that found AI companies significantly overweight publisher content in their crawling of the web – often while not paying the publishers who invested in producing that content – to train their generative AI systems, coming in direct competition with publishers, as well as infringing on publishers’ copyrights.

The Alliance continues to push for legislation to require Big Tech platforms such as Meta and Google to pay publishers for the use of their content, with the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA) being reintroduced in the Senate earlier this year. Canada recently passed similar legislation, which is modeled after the law in Australia that has been extremely successful, and the California State Assembly introduced a state journalism compensation bill that was the subject of a Senate informational hearing last week.

In addition, the News/Media Alliance works on behalf of its members to advocate on press freedom/First Amendment issues, privacy, digital advertising, copyright, postal delivery and more.

New News/Media Alliance members in 2023 include (not a complete list):

• AlterNet
• American Craft Council
• California Broker Magazine
• The Economist
• Future PLC
• G/O Media Inc.
• Grandstand Publishing LLC
• The Guardian
• Hughes Media Corp.
• Raptive
• Raw Story
• Rookie Road
• Style Media Group Inc.
• Today Media Inc.
• Ziff Davis

Coffey continued, “We look forward to working with our new members and all of membership to move forward key legislative and policy initiatives and demonstrate the importance and need for high-quality content in an information-driven world.”

For more information about membership in the News/Media Alliance, please click here.

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The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,200 news, magazine and digital media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Combined organization will focus on ensuring future of quality journalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance and MPA – The Association of Magazine Media have officially merged. The new combined association is now known as the News/Media Alliance and will focus on building a powerful future for quality journalism. The two organizations announced their plan to merge in May.

The News/Media Alliance is the leading voice for the news and magazine media industries, fighting for the future of publishing. News publishers and magazines are creators of valuable, compelling original journalism, together over $40 billion in annual revenue. News/Media Alliance members represent many of the biggest and most renowned brands in the news publishing and magazine industries.

The organization’s top-notch advocacy, proprietary research, original programs and dynamic events will bring together its diverse membership under a shared and vital purpose. The Alliance is committed to working with both its news publisher and magazine media members to create strategies and business models that will propel the industry forward and allow for original, quality journalism to thrive.

Alliance President & CEO David Chavern stated, “We are committed to defending the future of high-quality journalism. Our members work diligently to meet the needs of their readers, who rely on the news, investigative journalism and in-depth stories they provide. We know the future for the industry is bright and full of possibility, and we are excited that our two industries have joined together under a common mission.”

The Alliance is currently bringing on more expertise to expand its overall legislative, technical and research capabilities.

Chavern continued, “Together, we will leverage our collective voice to achieve our vision of sustained quality journalism whose value is recognized – by all who distribute and consume it – for the tremendous contributions it provides to society and to people’s lives.”

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
News/Media Alliance
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

About News/Media Alliance: The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news and magazine media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Combined organization will focus on ensuring the future of quality journalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance and MPA – The Association of Magazine Media today announced their agreement to merge the two organizations. The new combined association will be called the News/Media Alliance and will focus on building a powerful future for quality journalism. The memberships of both organizations have approved the merger, which, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close this summer.

News publishers and magazines are creators of great original journalism in the media landscape, together representing $45 billion in annual revenue. The Alliance and MPA represent many of the biggest and most renowned brands in both industries.

While the two industries have different pasts, they share a common future. The two organizations have overlapping missions and advocate on many of the same issues.

Current Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, will act as CEO of the combined entity.

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to bring our two organizations together and leverage our collective voice to achieve our shared vision of a bright and thriving future for high-quality journalism and content,” said Chavern. “The needs of the two industries are closely aligned, and this union will allow us to deliver higher value for a broader number of publishers and content creators.”

“The combined strength of news and magazine media publishers in this new alliance will expand opportunities for both our memberships, and we are pleased to be helping make this merger happen on their behalf,” said MPA President and Chief Executive Officer Rita Cohen, who will work with the newly merged organization. “I look forward to working with David and his team as we advance the future of publishing and high-quality journalism.”

The News/Media Alliance will be adding resources including hiring to build out legislative, technical and research capabilities for the combined organization.

Chavern continued, “Our members are continually creating new digital products that engage audiences and strengthen communities. They want and deserve markets for those products that fairly value quality journalism. We are absolutely committed to helping them to win in the evolving digital content landscape.”

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Media Contacts:
Lindsey Loving
News Media Alliance
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

Frances Cox
MPA – The Association of Magazine Media
fcox@fratelli.com

About News Media Alliance: The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

About MPA – The Association of Magazine Media: Representing over 500 brands, MPA – The Association of Magazine Media is the voice of the multi-platform media that informs, inspires and entertains readers and content users across the United States. We advocate for federal and state public policies that enable our members to deliver the content consumers value and trust.

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On December 9, the U.S. Copyright Office held a roundtable regarding its Study on Ancillary Copyright Protections for Publishers. The roundtable consisted of three panels, focusing on the main topics highlighted in the Office’s original Notice of Inquiry. The Alliance was represented in all three panels, in addition to attendance by Professor Jane Ginsburg and economist Hal Singer who supported the Alliance’s positions. The Alliance highlighted the current state of the news media industry in the United States and the detrimental effect news aggregators and online platforms have on news publishers, in addition to emphasizing the need for action. In particular, the Alliance noted the need for the Copyright Office to change its policy statements on words and short phrases, to develop a way for publishers to register dynamic web content, and for the Congress to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. Some other participants, including those representing the big tech companies, argued that the issue is not of copyright but competition law and therefore not within the Copyright Office’s purview. The Copyright Office initiated the study following a request from Congress, with the aim of completing it by May 2022. The Office is accepting additional written comments from stakeholders until January 5. Read the Alliance’s initial comments here and more about the study here.

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Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance is pleased to announce that Vox Media has become its newest member. Vox Media is a media company featuring a range of sites and publications producing original content, including Vox, New York Magazine, The Verge, The Cut, Eater, Vulture, The Strategist, Polygon, SB Nation, Intelligencer, Curbed, Grub Street and Recode. Their podcast business, Vox Media Podcast Network, offers one of the largest collections of popular podcasts and spans a wide spectrum of topics, issues and interests.

Lauren Fisher, chief legal officer at Vox Media, who will become a board member at the News Media Alliance, said, “Now more than ever we see a need to take a leadership role on issues that will impact the media industry and we recognize the value in partnering with other like-minded news organizations to advocate for our shared values.”

Alliance President & CEO David Chavern stated, “We are delighted to welcome Vox Media to the Alliance family. The current market environment’s impact on the ability to monetize quality content, with news publishers innovating and growing audience across all business models, is more important than ever. The support of innovative, multiplatform media partners like Vox Media is invaluable as we continue to fight for the industry’s future, and we look forward to working with them as we advance key issues impacting the industry and elevate the value and importance of high-quality news in today’s information-driven society.”

Vox Media was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Their websites reach over 100 million people each month (Comscore) and the Vox Media Podcast Network is one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most topically diverse collections of premium podcasts. A multi-pronged business, Vox Media includes digital, podcasts, TV, streaming, live events, and print; and provides advertising and marketing solutions, content management tools, and more for its clients and customers.

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
571.366.1009
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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