Why we became Australia's first indie publisher to license content to AI

Scott Purcell (above) co-founder of Man of Many

Having spent over a decade watching digital platforms promise plenty but deliver little to content creators, seeing journalism repeatedly undervalued, it felt counterintuitive for Man of Many to voluntarily license our premium content to yet another tech platform.

But becoming the first Australian lifestyle publisher to formally license our content to an AI platform, ProRata.AI and its answer engine, Gist.ai, isn't about chasing short-term revenue. It's about setting standards and proactively shaping the future of digital publishing, informed by hard-learned lessons from our industry's past.

Lessons from the News Media Bargaining Code

Australia's experience with the News Media Bargaining Code offered a brutal yet valuable lesson: waiting for platforms to set terms almost always results in publishers losing out. Big tech’s initial response, including threats to withdraw services, underscored just how dispensable local publishers were viewed. However, collective publisher action showed that fair compensation is achievable when we proactively assert our value.

• Read more: An indie publisher's view on why Australia's bid to make big tech pay for news failed

The rise of AI presents a similarly pivotal moment but with higher stakes and a tighter timeline. Publishers face a stark choice: actively shape how AI engages with our content or passively watch platforms extract value on their terms.

Moving beyond blocking

Many publishers instinctively lean towards blocking AI crawlers, using robots.txt restrictions to monitor and restrict content scraping. At Man of Many, we’ve implemented similar tools and found the scale of scraping startling.

However, we realised blocking is essentially fighting the previous battle. Traditional search traffic is already in decline, and zero-click search results are rapidly becoming the norm. AI-driven search is no longer theoretical; it's the new reality, demanding proactive, nuanced engagement.

The key issue isn't whether AI will use publisher content, but how transparently and fairly it will do so. Licensing, rather than mere scraping, ensures respect for original journalism.

Attribution over revenue

When assessing ProRata.AI's offering, its revenue-sharing model (distributing half of platform earnings based on measurable content contribution) was appealing. However, its explicit commitment to transparent attribution was decisive.

Unlike typical AI practices treating journalism anonymously, ProRata ensures every generated answer provides clear attribution to the original publisher, complete with masthead visibility, author credits, and direct source links.

Man of Many content appearing on the Gist.ai platform

For an industry long accustomed to seeing its efforts undervalued, this marks a significant shift. Clear attribution not only recognises our work but also maintains visibility for our brand, something far more strategically valuable long-term than uncertain short-term revenue.

Read more: Perplexity courts publishers with ad revenue share experiment

Collective action as leverage

The calibre of publishers already partnering with ProRata (including The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vox Media, and Fortune) is significant. These established brands aren’t entering desperate licensing arrangements; they're strategically aligning around common principles: transparency, fair compensation, and editorial integrity.

This collective stance enhances leverage and ensures that publishers aren't isolated in negotiations, diminishing platforms' ability to play publishers off each other.

Australia's unique advantage

Australia’s concentrated media market and the precedent set by the News Media Bargaining Code uniquely position us to lead globally on AI licensing standards.

There's a cautious yet practical appetite here, tempered by scepticism from previous platform engagements. Publishers across the board are piloting blockers, analysing crawler data, and demanding clear metrics around AI usage and value transfer. Crucially, there's industry-wide consensus that AI partnerships must inherently respect original reporting and content creators.

A flexible, forward-thinking approach

Man of Many’s partnership with ProRata.AI is deliberately non-exclusive. Given the rapid evolution of AI and digital publishing, we must retain flexibility to adapt as standards evolve and new, potentially superior models emerge.

The previous assumption - that platforms would naturally offer fair terms - proved disastrously naive. We can't afford a repeat scenario. Establishing clear standards now for attribution and remuneration provides a critical framework for future publisher-platform relationships.

The AI revolution will undoubtedly reshape content consumption. The question remains: will publishers actively shape this future or passively suffer its consequences? At Man of Many, we’re choosing active participation—but strictly on terms that recognise and value our journalism.

Scott Purcell is the co-founder of Man of Many, Australia's largest men's lifestyle news website

This article was drafted by Claude AI before it was edited by two humans.

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