Taking On Big Tech: Publishers Raising Red Flags On AI Theft Concerns

With genAI spending expected to increase 76.4% this year to a total of more than $640 billion worldwide, there really is no way to undersell the impact that the technology is already having across every industry. 

Publishing, of course, is no exception, with focus toggling between the AI tools that publishers are already using in many departments to the emerging, even existential concerns about AI’s effect on attribution, search, and the industry in general.

And it’s from that side of the table that news publishers from The New York Times to The Washington Post launched a coordinated ad campaign this week, calling on lawmakers to “make Big Tech pay for the content it takes to run its AI products.”

 

Ex-Google Exec: Giving Traffic To Publishers ‘A Necessary Evil’

Google has been increasingly focused on keeping users inside Google properties, reducing the need to click through to external sites. A former Google senior executive told Bloomberg that supporting publishers was incidental to Google’s larger aims: “Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil. The main thing they’re trying to do is get people to consume Google services.”

 

The State of AI In Marketing 2025

AI is no longer a futuristic concept, but a necessary tool for marketers to achieve success. From content creation to customer insights, AI’s impact is both broad and deep, promising to change how we approach marketing challenges and opportunities.

 

Online, Offline And Everywhere: Retailers Turn To Connected Commerce

Connected commerce is a hot buzzword in retailing. In 2024, 90.7% of retailers increased their spending on it, and 92.5% expect to allocate more in 2025, for a total of $112 billion, according to a new study from Winterberry Group.