Meta just signed commercial AI data agreements with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People Inc. for its Meta AI chatbot. This is the same company that killed its News Tab in 2024 and ended publisher payouts in 2022. What changed? The AI race. OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity all have news partnerships. Meta couldn’t compete without them. So Meta is crawling back with checkbooks open – a humiliating about-face driven by desperation.
The Timeline of Betrayal
In 2019, Facebook launched its News Tab with $105 million in publisher deals – $20 million to The New York Times, $10 million to The Wall Street Journal. Then in 2022, Meta ended its publisher payout program. The message: publishers need Facebook more than Facebook needs them. In 2024, Meta shut down the News Tab entirely, citing an 80% usage decline.
Until December 5, 2025. Meta announced multiyear deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, People Inc., and others. Publishers get compensation and traffic. The content Meta refused to pay for is suddenly valuable again.
This isn’t strategy. It’s forced retreat.
Why Meta Had No Choice
Meta’s U-turn is about AI competition, not journalism values. OpenAI has roughly 40 partnerships including The Guardian, Associated Press, News Corp, and The Atlantic. Google partnered with AP for Gemini. Perplexity launched revenue-sharing with 15+ media partners.
Meta AI had nothing. No verified news sources. Just web scraping and hallucination risks. When competing against ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity – all offering sourced news – you can’t fall behind.
Meta didn’t pay publishers out of principle. They were forced by market pressure. If OpenAI hadn’t moved first, Meta would still pay zero.
What Publishers Actually Get
The deals include multiyear compensation (amounts undisclosed), traffic from Meta AI’s 1 billion+ users, and direct links to articles. Better than nothing.
But Meta still wins both sides. Publishers get compensated, but Meta captures user data and ad revenue. Starting December 16, Meta will use Meta AI conversations to personalize ads across Facebook and Instagram. They pay publishers a fee, then monetize the user data from that content.
Publishers with OpenAI deals see clickthrough rates seven times higher than those without, per Tollbit’s State of the Bots report. AI chatbots can drive traffic. But publishers negotiate from weakness.
Can Publishers Trust Meta?
Can publishers trust a company that abandoned them in 2022, killed its News Tab in 2024, and only returned when forced by competition?
Meta pays when forced, cuts when convenient. The 2025 deals are reactive catch-up, not strategy. If AI hype fades or Meta AI plateaus, what stops another abandonment? Nothing.
This is a marriage of convenience, not partnership.
The Big Media Consolidation Problem
Meta’s partners: CNN, Fox News, USA Today, People Inc. – all major brands. OpenAI’s deals “skew heavily towards premium journalism from the largest media businesses,” per Digiday. Google partners with AP, The Economist, The Atlantic.
Small publishers, non-English media, and independent journalism are shut out. You need leverage for a seat at the table. AI licensing isn’t saving journalism – it’s consolidating it. The publishers with scale get paid. Everyone else gets scraped without compensation.
The Bottom Line
Meta’s deals prove content has value – but only when competition forces payment. Publishers have temporary leverage because Meta AI can’t compete without verified news. But that leverage is fragile.
Publishers should take the money. But don’t trust Meta’s generosity. This is the company that claimed publishers were worthless, abandoned them, and only returned when AI competition became too painful.
Meta’s U-turn isn’t strength. It’s desperation.
