Annual Cost Exceeds $20 Million!

Recently, foreign media revealed that the agreement signed between The New York Times and Amazon in May this year has brought substantial revenue to the former, with annual fees reaching $20 to $25 million, paid in cash. This amount is equivalent to nearly 1% of The New York Times' total revenue in 2024.

Under the agreement, Amazon has secured licensing rights to editorial content from The New York Times, NYT Cooking, and sports site The Athletic for AI-related applications. This includes displaying real-time summaries and excerpts of The New York Times' content in Amazon’s products and services (such as voice assistant Alexa), as well as training Amazon’s large-scale AI models.

This marks the first time The New York Times has licensed its content to a tech giant. In a statement, The New York Times wrote: "This agreement expands our existing partnership, not only creating more value for Amazon customers but also allowing The New York Times' journalism to reach a broader audience." The statement also noted that The New York Times content displayed in Amazon’s products and services will include links back to the original articles.

The deal came as a surprise to the industry, as The New York Times had previously taken a hardline stance on AI copyright issues. In December 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, becoming the first major U.S. media outlet to take legal action against the two companies over unauthorized use of its written works.

Meanwhile, Amazon has been actively integrating AI into its services to enhance user experience. In February, Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa received its first major update since its 2014 launch, transforming into a new AI agent called "Alexa+."

On July 31, Amazon released its Q2 2025 earnings report, showing a 13% year-on-year revenue increase to $167.7 billion, with net profit surging 35% to $18.164 billion. However, Amazon provided cautious guidance, and its cloud business performance disappointed some investors.

An increasing number of news organizations are now choosing to explore AI collaborations with tech companies rather than pursuing lawsuits. For example, in May, U.S. media giant News Corp announced a multi-year global partnership with OpenAI, granting OpenAI access to current and archived articles from News Corp’s media properties. According to insiders, the deal spans five years and could be worth over $250 million in total.

OpenAI stated that it has established media partnerships with more than 20 news publishers, covering over 160 media outlets. Previously, OpenAI also signed a three-year agreement with Axel Springer, one of Europe’s largest media companies, valued at $25 to $30 million.