Publishers with AI licensing deals have seven times the clickthrough rate (pressgazette.co.uk)

A new Tollbit “State of the Bots” analysis finds publishers with OpenAI licensing deals see nearly seven times the ChatGPT clickthrough rate of those without agreements. OpenAI has struck roughly 40 such partnerships over an 18‑month deal‑making window; those agreements not only let ChatGPT access real‑time journalism but also trigger large feature boxes that dramatically increase visibility and referrals. Similar but smaller licensing programs are being pursued by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, meaning bilateral commercial deals — not neutral ranking algorithms — are increasingly determining which outlets get audience and revenue from LLMs. That shift matters because it concentrates advantage among large, premium, English‑language publishers, sidelines small, independent and non‑English outlets, and replaces an ostensibly uniform algorithmic distribution with opaque executive gatekeeping. As LLMs supplant traditional search for many use cases, these discretionary licensing choices could lock in market power, raise barriers to entry, invite political influence, and narrow the diversity of sources feeding AI systems. The report flags an urgent need for collective publisher strategies, new fair‑value marketplaces for content, and policy attention to ensure independent, specialist and minority‑language journalism remains available to power responsible AI.