Le Monde partners with Perplexity as AI impact on legacy print grows

Le Monde’s partnership with AI startup Perplexity highlights the growing trend of media organizations forging strategic alliances with AI companies to develop new products, expand audience reach, and create alternative revenue streams. This collaboration comes amid increasing tensions between publishers and AI firms over content usage, as media companies seek to establish mutually beneficial relationships rather than pursuing legal action over unauthorized training data.

The big picture: French newspaper Le Monde has entered a content partnership with U.S.-based AI company Perplexity, allowing the AI firm to access Le Monde’s content while the newspaper leverages Perplexity’s technology for new AI product development.

Why this matters: This agreement represents a strategic shift in how some media organizations are approaching AI companies—choosing collaboration over litigation as AI startups compete for deals with publishers to improve their products’ responses.

Key details: The partnership will grant Perplexity access to Le Monde’s content to enhance its search engine responses while supporting publishers whose content appears in the AI-generated answers.

• Louis Dreyfus, Le Monde’s CEO, explained the strategy: “At Le Monde, we have continued to explore new partnerships with leading AI players to enlarge our audience, expand our development capacities, and to build new sources of revenues.”
• Perplexity, backed by Nvidia, has already established similar agreements with over a dozen media partners, including the Los Angeles Times and the Independent.

Industry context: The Le Monde partnership contrasts with the adversarial stance many publishers have taken toward AI companies, with several media groups filing lawsuits alleging unauthorized use of their content for AI model training.

• Perplexity’s publisher program shares a portion of advertising revenue with participating media organizations, creating a financial incentive for content partnerships.