NYT and The Economist Join 80-Member Publisher Coalition to Block Unpaid AI Scraping

The New York Times, Agence France-Presse, and The Economist have joined the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR) coalition to build technical standards preventing AI companies from using their content without permission. The move comes as publishers face severe traffic declines, with Google organic-search referrals falling 33% globally across more than 2,500 websites between November 2024 and November 2025. The coalition has expanded to more than 80 members across over 20 countries, adding publishers like The Atlantic and Brazil's National Association of Newspapers to founding members including the BBC and Associated Press. SPUR recently introduced a Content Telemetry Standard designed to standardize how AI agents record and report their consumption of media content to facilitate paid licensing agreements. "Intellectual property protection and technological advancement can and must co-exist." — Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, the New York Times' head of strategic partnerships and chief of staff.