This $5 subscription wants to save online journalism from low-effort AI summary slop — but it’ll only work if publishers opt in first

by

In essence, clicks have largely been the lifeblood of online journalism, powering its survival and growth. These clicks typically generate revenue that supports the writers responsible for news and editorial pieces found across the web. However, modern artificial intelligence tools such as Google’s AI Overviews for search or OpenAI’s ChatGPT are increasingly engaging with this content, diverting traffic from those valuable clicks by redirecting page views.

AI-summaries are causing chaos in the digital publishing sector, a field heavily dependent on advertising and affiliate income derived from genuine human traffic. While these summaries can be useful to readers when they function correctly, they’re not exempt from errors or “delusions,” which can spread misinformation taken from outdated or simply irrelevant sources.

Despite their unrestricted access, AI crawlers have been freely gathering data from numerous websites belonging to various publishers. They transform the information they gather into concise snippets of text, which might discourage readers from visiting the original source, especially when the sources are not properly cited. This issue often arises due to the regular absence of proper citations. Now, you may wonder what a private AI firm like Perplexity intends to do about this challenge?

AI programs have been collecting data from multiple websites without any limitations. They turn the information they collect into easy-to-read summaries, which could prevent readers from visiting the original sources if the sources are not credited. This issue frequently occurs due to a lack of proper citations. So, you might be curious about what steps Perplexity, a private AI company, plans to take to address this problem?

In simpler terms, Perplexity provides a comparable summary experience using its “Perplexity Assistant,” an AI tool, together with its search engine (known as “Answer Engine”), and a separate “Comet” AI browser. However, if it fails to tackle the core problems of AI summaries, it will keep draining the revenue that publishers depend on for their employees’ salaries. Essentially, less traffic equals less content, which is a common outcome.

It seems other businesses are also understanding that relying on free data gathering isn’t sustainable in the long run. Eventually, without human-generated content, what would AI extract? Therefore, as a solution, Perplexity has introduced a novel approach for remunerating publishers whose content is utilized by its AI, according to Bloomberg.

Under the title of “Comet Plus”, Perplexity introduces a fresh $5 monthly subscription option. As stated in their official press release, this plan is intended to grant users exclusive access to top-tier content from a reliable network of publishers or journalists.

If publishers opt for a content deal, Comet Plus subscribers can enjoy easy access to these publishers’ content. Perplexity strives to ensure that this content remains top-notch and of exceptional quality on the internet.

“A better internet requires a better model”

According to the announcement from Perplexity, partners of Comet Plus will be rewarded financially based on three categories of internet activity: human visits, searches, and actions taken by artificial intelligence. Essentially, publishers can expect monetary compensation whenever their content is viewed by Perplexity’s AI system, regardless of whether it’s accessed through the Comet web browser, search engine, or AI assistant.

Instead of keeping the entire revenue, we’re allocating it to our partnering publishers, while deducting a minor amount to cover Perplexity’s computational expenses.

Perplexity, via “Introducing Comet Plus”

The service known as Perplexity states that 80% of every $5 subscription fee it collects will be distributed among its partnering publishers, with the remaining 20% being used to cover the ongoing computing expenses necessary for the AI’s operation. As reported by Bloomberg, Perplexity initially has a fund of approximately $42.5 million at its disposal, a sum expected to be replenished once the new Comet Plus subscription plan becomes active.

To ensure transparency, Perplexity currently provides two plans: Pro at $20 per month and Max at $200 per month. Current members will receive Comet Plus as part of their ongoing subscription. Regarding the initial participants, Perplexity clarifies, “We will disclose our initial group of publishing partners once Comet is accessible to all users free of charge.

Perplexity is familiar with publisher scrutiny

In simple terms, issues related to copyright and trademark violations are nothing new for Perplexity. Last year, it faced criticism from significant publishing houses, allegedly prompting the introduction of the Perplexity Publisher’s Program in July 2024.

The designed-for-sharing revenue program, aimed at distributing funds typically earned by a site due to AI summarizing its content, initially collaborated with partners like TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, and WordPress.com. However, as reported by The Wall Street Journal in October 2024, this initiative failed to shield Perplexity from copyright infringement lawsuits filed by Dow Jones and The New York Post.

To bolster the crucial roles played by media groups and digital content producers, it’s essential that we enable publishers to flourish as complexity increases.

Perplexity, via “Introducing the Perplexity Publishers’ Program”

It’s also worth noting that OpenAI isn’t the only AI company facing copyright infringement lawsuits. In May 2024, Microsoft and OpenAI found themselves in a legal dispute with eight news publishers owned by Alden Global Capital. These publishers joined The New York Times in filing a lawsuit against OpenAI for unauthorized use of their copyrighted works.

As a fervent admirer, I found myself taken aback when Perplexity dared to leverage Google’s antitrust predicaments, attempting an audacious move. In an unusual maneuver, Perplexity extended a surprising proposition to Google: a staggering $34.5 billion for its Chrome browser. This was intriguing because the product wasn’t on the market and given that Perplexity’s valuation placed their own company at approximately $18 billion.

Cloudflare’s “pay per crawl” model is similar

In July 2025, Cloudflare, a prominent global digital content delivery network that serves companies like Microsoft, introduced a new payment system for AI crawlers. This system requires AI crawlers to pay websites for the data they extract, with the option for websites to opt-in and regain some control over AI firms profiting from previously free data.

In order for the Internet to thrive in the era of artificial intelligence, it’s crucial to empower content creators with the authority they should rightfully have. Let’s work towards establishing a fresh economic system that benefits everyone involved – authors, readers, AI pioneers of tomorrow, and the Internet as a whole.

Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO and co-founder

Once they sign up, publishers have the freedom to decide which content is visible to AI crawlers, along with gaining insights into how their data is being utilized. This “pay per crawl” strategy represents a more sophisticated solution compared to Cloudflare’s 2024 plan to fully prohibit AI crawlers, and it was warmly welcomed by over 37 leading publishers like The Associated Press, Condé Nast, Pinterest, Ziff Davis, ProRata AI, and TIME.

Read More

2025-08-30 16:40