People Inc., one of the largest media publishers in the United States, has entered into a new AI licensing agreement with Microsoft, marking a significant step in its strategy to monetize its content in the age of artificial intelligence. The deal was announced Tuesday as part of IAC’s third-quarter earnings report. Under the agreement, People Inc. will become a launch partner in Microsoft’s publisher content marketplace, a platform designed to enable AI companies to directly compensate publishers for using their content. The marketplace operates on a pay-per-use model, allowing AI developers to license content on an “a la carte” basis. People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel described it as a fair and transparent system where publishers are compensated based on actual usage. He highlighted Microsoft’s Copilot as the first buyer in the marketplace, calling it a strong endorsement of both the platform and the value of high-quality editorial content in building trustworthy AI. This marks People Inc.’s second major AI content deal, following a previous agreement with OpenAI. Vogel noted that the OpenAI arrangement was more of an “all-you-can-eat” model, but emphasized that the company is satisfied with either approach—as long as its content is respected and fairly paid for. The specific financial terms of the Microsoft deal were not disclosed. The announcement comes amid growing concerns over how AI companies use media content without compensation. People Inc. has been vocal about this issue, particularly criticizing Google for using the same web crawler for both its search engine and AI features. Because publishers cannot block the bot without risking a significant drop in search traffic, many have been unable to control how their content is used to train AI models. In response, People Inc. began using Cloudflare’s technology to block AI crawlers from accessing its sites. Vogel said this move has been “very effective” and has brought nearly all major AI players to the negotiating table. He noted that progress on content deals accelerated significantly after implementing the strategy and expects more announcements in the near future. The company also shared new data during the earnings call showing a sharp decline in traffic from Google Search. Two years ago, Google accounted for 54% of People Inc.’s traffic. In the most recent quarter, that share had dropped to 24%, a direct result of Google’s AI Overviews feature, which now displays AI-generated summaries in search results, reducing the need for users to click through to original articles. Despite the traffic loss, People Inc. reported strong financial performance, with digital revenue rising 9% to $269 million in the quarter. Growth was driven by performance marketing, which increased 38%, and content licensing, up 24%. The company also announced the acquisition of Feedfeed, a food-focused media publisher and influencer network, further expanding its digital footprint.