The top AI platforms for publishers, ranked

""[2025] did feel like a real reset. If you skip back just to those early deals, it was such a different picture. Very, very bleak. So last year very much did feel like a lot more happened," said Digiday senior media editor Jessica Davies on the latest Digiday Podcast episode. All of which puts publishers in an almost-enviable position. Not all publishers are able to partake in the buffet of AI platforms looking to pay for their content, but those that are can enjoy a fuller menu of options."

""It's sort of open season. Now that there are more players in the space, it's more competitive. There are more options for publishers," said Digiday senior media reporter Sara Guaglione on the Digiday Podcast. But then the publishers have to evaluate those options. Fortunately Davies and Guaglione have done a lot of that legwork in drafting a scorecard of the major AI platforms based on interviews with publishers. They joined the show to review the rankings and share the reasoning behind why platforms from Meta to Microsoft, Anthropic to OpenAI may rate higher or lower than you'd expect."

Two years after OpenAI's first content licensing deal with Axel Springer, AI platforms doing business with publishers have expanded exponentially, especially in the past year. 2025 felt like a real reset compared with the early deals that appeared bleak. Publishers that can participate now face a more competitive landscape and a fuller menu of options. Many publishers must evaluate multiple licensing offers. A scorecard was drafted to rank major AI platforms based on publisher interviews and to explain differences among Meta, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. Google runs partnership pilots in Google News and has promised greater linking in AI Mode. Some publishers with Meta deals still block Meta's crawler.

Read at Digiday