Perplexity courts publishers with ad revenue share experiment

In a nutshell:

• AI search engine Perplexity has expanded its publisher partnership programme offering a revenue share on ad-sponsored questions, plus free access to Perplexity Pro. Unlike other AI companies, Perplexity does not train its own models but instead summarises content from websites.
• It uses a ranking system with more than 50 signals to prioritise authoritative sources and includes citations for all answers. Challenges remain over potential bias and qualifying trustworthy sources.
• Publishers like TIME remain optimistic about the partnership, viewing it as an interesting experiment in creating a sustainable relationship between AI companies and traditional media.

The full story:

Perplexity, an AI search company, is looking to make friends with publishers through a partnership programme launched last summer. It has since caught the attention of major media outlets like TIME, Fortune and Der Spiegel but also niche outlets like the US black creators community Blavity.

Unlike other generative AI giants, such as OpenAI or Gemini, Perplexity does not train any models. It is a search engine that answers users' questions by summarising content from websites rather than just spitting out a bunch of links. It is an important distinction because it changes how publishers' content is used.

The gist

The pitch is pretty straightforward: when people use Perplexity to ask questions, the AI often relies on content from news organisations and other publishers to provide answers. Now, Perplexity looks at giving something back through a revenue-sharing scheme.

When advertisers pay to sponsor questions on Perplexity's platform, publishers whose content is cited in the answers will get a slice of the pie. The company is also offering some tech perks - publishers can use Perplexity's AI technology on their own websites, plus their staff get free access to Perplexity's premium service for a year.

"We structured this program to ensure we have a scalable and sustainable way to align incentives for all parties," says Perplexity's CEO Aravind Srinivas. The company seems keen to position itself as a friend rather than a foe to traditional media, adds Jessica Chan, its new head of publisher partnerships, emphasising a desire to work with publishers of all sizes, from major brands to niche outlets.

Read more: 'To GPT or not to GPT? That is not even the question anymore'

The wobble

No search engine is immune to spreading misinformation, and Perplexity is no exception. To minimise the risk, explains Chan, the company employs several strategies. For instance, it uses a ranking system with more than 50 different signals to determine which sources are most authoritative, prioritising trusted and fact-checked sources.

It also include citations for all answers, allowing users to verify information for themselves. Perhaps most intriguingly, the system is reportedly designed to challenge questions that cannot be answered factually, making it clear that it is a tool for summarising information, not for forming opinions.

However, the company acknowledges that its AI content detection system is not foolproof (and, in fairness, no detection system is). The reliance on cross-referencing multiple sources, while helpful, does not necessarily guarantee accuracy - especially for breaking news or emerging topics where misinformation can initially appear across multiple outlets. The source materials do not address how the system handles such scenarios or how quickly it can update its information when corrections are published.

Another potential weakness is that while Perplexity focuses on citing "trusted" sources, there is no clear explanation of how it determines which sources are trustworthy or whether this process itself might introduce certain biases into its system.

The catch

There is one important detail: the revenue-sharing model only kicks in when advertising is involved - there is no compensation for the vast amount of publisher content that Perplexity currently uses to power its regular answers.

While the company argues this is more sustainable than one-off payments, it means publishers are essentially providing free content until there is an advertiser that pays Perplexity, which is something publishers have no control over. That is a pretty slim slice of the pie for a company valued at $9 billion after its latest fundraising round and whose success depends on quality, up-to-date content from publishers and creators perhaps more than it cares to admit.

There is also a broader question about power dynamics. While Perplexity presents itself as a partner to publishers, it is effectively becoming a new gatekeeper for news content. Publishers might feel pressured to join the programme simply to retain control over content, rather than any beneficial outcome.

Despite these concerns, Perplexity's approach stands out among AI companies for at least attempting to create a sustainable relationship with content creators. TIME's CEO Mark Howard seems optimistic, noting that the partnership aligns with their mission to provide trusted journalism while reaching new audiences.

The programme's success will likely depend on how the advertising revenue actually materialises and whether publishers find real value in the technological tools being offered. For now, it represents an interesting experiment in finding common ground between AI companies and traditional media.

Justine Roberts, CEO of the UK's largest parenting forum Mumsnet which is taking legal action against OpenAI, commented: "Ensuring creators are properly compensated for their content isn’t just the right thing to do - it's essential for future growth in the generative AI sector, which is reliant on a sustainable supply of high-quality, human-authored copyright works. Perplexity's Publishers' Program is a positive step towards a world in which innovation and fairness can co-exist."

If you want to learn more about joining the Publisher Program, email publishers@perplexity.ai

Note: The article has been updated with the quote from Justine Roberts at 17:25 on 5 February 2025.

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