OpenAI’s Publisher Partner Program: The MFA Revival Nobody Asked For

• OpenAI announced deals with Axel Springer, AP, and others in May 2024.
• The program pays publishers for training data and “summarization rights.”
• History lesson: AdSense for MFA (Made-for-AdSense) sites gutted web content quality in the 2000s.

The OpenAI Publisher Partner Program is Silicon Valley nonsense wrapped in a shiny press release. Sam Altman wants publishers to believe they’re finally getting a fair shake—except this is the same cynical AdSense grift that gutted the web 20 years ago, just with more AI jargon and fewer banner ads. When OpenAI dangles ‘compensation for your data’ in front of legacy media, what they’re really offering is a race to the bottom: take a pittance now, or get scraped for free later.

Here’s the bait-and-switch: OpenAI only buddies up with giant incumbents—Axel Springer, The AP, maybe The Financial Times—while real independent publishers get jack squat. This is classic Google playbook, right down to the selective invitations and NDA-heavy contracts. Remember how AdSense turned ‘blogging’ into a pit of MFA spam? This will do the same for AI Search, but on a nuclear scale: garbage-in, summary-out. The LLM will churn out flavorless paste, and every SEO agency with a Ghost blog will be fighting over OpenAI’s charity pennies.

Let’s talk receipts. The Associated Press gets a licensing fee, but smaller publishers get nothing: their content is still ingested by web crawlers with zero transparency or recourse. We know how this ends—see AdSense’s entire history, or Google’s 2023 ‘helpful content’ update that nuked indie sites but kept Forbes and USA Today at the top. If you think OpenAI’s program won’t become a cartel for the already-rich, you’re not paying attention. Don’t let the press release fool you: this is enclosure, not partnership.

Here’s the uncomfortable fix: Publishers should stop signing deals that legalize their own cannibalization. Block OpenAI’s GPTBot at the firewall. Build direct channels (newsletters, RSS, paywalls) and starve the crawlers. If you have to take the money, demand insane, non-NDA’d transparency and opt-out clauses. Otherwise, you’re just marking yourself “Made for LLM”—and you already know how that ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenAI’s Publisher Partner Program?

Started in May 2024, this program offers select publishers (like Axel Springer and AP) money for allowing OpenAI to train its LLMs on their content and generate summaries in ChatGPT. Most smaller sites are not invited or compensated.

How does this differ from Google AdSense for MFA sites?

Both schemes promise publisher “revenue sharing” but in reality concentrate benefits among large incumbents. AdSense led to MFA spam; OpenAI risks flooding AI search with generic, recycled content summaries. The power imbalance remains unchanged.

What should publishers do instead of joining?

Block OpenAI’s GPTBot via robots.txt and server rules; prioritize direct user relationships instead of platform handouts. If forced to deal, demand maximum transparency and real opt-out. Do not trust “publisher partnerships” with AI giants to protect your business.