And he is wary of giving away too much without clear value in return. TMB - which owns brands like Reader's Digest, Taste of Home, and user-generated video licensing company Jukin Media - doesn't want to give LLMs wide access to its content. "We just don't want to hand over the keys," said Salamon at Digiday's Publishing Summit in Miami, Fl., in September.
The centerpiece of this initiative is Plus, a $5-a-month subscription tier designed to deliver smarter browsing as well as channel income back to publishers whose work powers its AI. At the core of Comet Plus lies a $42.5 million , earmarked for early participating publishers and slated to expand as more users join Comet Plus, one that Perplexity promises will expand over time. The model is built on a generous split: publishers 80% of subscription revenue, while Perplexity retains 20% to defray compute and operational costs.