Independent publishers · AI licensing

Your journalism. Your terms. One voice towards the AI companies.

The biggest publishers already have their own AI deals. Source Y negotiates for everyone else: local and regional press, trade press and magazines, wherever they publish. You choose how your content may be used, and you get paid when it is.

I’m a publisher →Join the pool, keep control I license content →One counterparty, clean rights

Both. Two separate licences, each with its own terms and its own reporting.

We are signing 20 founding publishers before the first AI negotiation. Built to EU standards · Launching 2026

Why a pool

Alone, a local paper is easy to ignore. Together, independent press is hard to replace.

The buyers are few

A handful of AI companies decide which sources they pay for. If they can get something similar for free on the open web, they will leave out a single title.

Small titles can’t negotiate alone

Lawyers, technical delivery and usage tracking cost the same for a trade magazine as for a national daily. Most publishers never get to the table.

Together you have what they lack

Unique local coverage, specialist trade knowledge and deep archives in many languages. None of it is free on the open web, and together it’s too big to leave out.

“We work only for publishers. We negotiate, deliver and report, so you don’t have to build any of it.”

Your choice

Search and training are two separate licences. You decide on each one.

You can change your choice later, and you can exclude individual titles, sections or years.

Licence 1

AI search only

AI assistants may fetch your articles in real time, show a short excerpt and link back to you. No training.

Paid for: Each use in an answer
Suits: Daily news, local coverage

Licence 2

AI training only

Your archive may be licensed to train language models. Nothing is shown in real time.

Paid for: Your share of each licence
Suits: Deep archives, trade press

Both

Search and training

Both licences, each with its own terms and its own reporting.

Paid for: Both of the above
Suits: Maximum revenue

Exclusions

Leave something out

Exclude a title, a section or certain years. Excluded content is never offered to anyone.

Paid for: n/a
Suits: Sensitive material, existing deals

How it works

Joining takes four steps. No technical project on your side.

Sign the standard agreement
The same terms for every publisher in the pool. Non-exclusive, so you keep any deals you already have.
Connect your content
We take your RSS feed, API or archive export. You don’t build anything.
Choose your licences
Search, training or both, per title. Change your choice later if you want.
Get reports and payouts
See which articles were used, by whom and for what, and get paid for that use.

How you get paid

Paid for actual use, with a report per article.

The AI company pays Source Y. We pay most of that to you and keep a share for negotiation, delivery and reporting. The exact share is in the standard agreement and is the same for every publisher in the pool.

Example report · Q1Illustration

Harbour fees rise for the third year runningSearch412 uses

Inside the new regional rail tenderSearch268 uses

Archive 1998–2024, 61 400 articlesTraining1 licence

Example data showing what the report looks like, not real figures.

Search: per use

Every time an AI answer uses your article, it counts. Recurring revenue that grows with use.

Training: your share of the licence

Larger, less frequent payments, split by how much of the licensed archive is yours.

Full transparency

You see every use. Nothing is sold without your licence choice behind it.

For AI companies

Independent journalism that isn’t on the open web, licensed through one agreement.

Instead of hundreds of negotiations with individual titles, you sign one agreement with Source Y, with the rights for each title already cleared.

One counterparty

One agreement, one delivery format and one invoice for the titles in the pool.

Content you can’t scrape

Paywalled news, local coverage, specialist trade press and archives in many languages and markets.

Search and training licensed separately

Real-time retrieval and training are separate products with separate terms, so you buy exactly what you use.

A documented rights chain

Provenance and permissions are documented for every item, which supports your transparency duties under the EU AI Act.

Talk to us about licensingPartnerships and data teams welcome.

Legal basis

Built to EU standards, wherever you publish.

The EU has the most detailed rules for AI and content. We apply them to every licence, whether the publisher is in Lisbon or Lagos and the buyer is in Paris or Palo Alto.

DSM Directive art. 4

TDM reservation

We help you reserve your rights against free text and data mining, so licensed access becomes the only way in.

EU AI Act

Provenance

Buyers have to document their training data. Licensed, traceable content makes that possible.

Competition law

Collective negotiation

The pool is designed to comply with competition rules. Each publisher’s editorial and commercial decisions stay its own.

GDPR

Personal data

We process personal data in content under GDPR and agree the responsibilities with both publishers and buyers.

Standard agreement

Same terms for everyone

One standard agreement. No secret side deals between publishers in the pool.

Mandate

We work for publishers

We never represent the buyer side. Our only job is getting publishers paid.

Questions

What publishers ask us first

Can I keep the deals I already have?

Yes. The agreement is non-exclusive. If you already license to an AI company directly, you can exclude that content from the pool.

Can I leave or change my mind?

Yes. You can change your licence choices and withdraw content for the future. For training, the agreement sets out what happens to datasets that have already been delivered.

Does it cost anything to join?

We plan for joining to be free. We are paid from a share of the licence revenue we bring in, so we only earn when you do.

Who can see my archive?

Only buyers who have signed a licence covering the content you have chosen to include. Excluded content is never offered.

Do the journalists get anything?

That’s up to each publisher. The per-article reports make it possible to pass revenue on to the people who wrote the work.

Get in touch

Become a founding publisher.

Founding publishers help shape the standard agreement before the first negotiation. Leave your details and one of the founders will call you, or email us at hello@sourceysolutions.com.