{"slug": "woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies", "title": "Woo, Sue, and ARPU: What Publisher Earnings Reveal About Their AI Strategies", "summary": "The New York Times, News Corp, USA Today Co., and People Inc. reported second-quarter earnings this week, with traffic declines attributed to AI. Each publisher is adopting a strategy of licensing content to AI companies, suing or blocking where licensing fails, and increasing revenue from existing readers, a framework News Corp CEO Robert Thomson calls 'woo and sue.'", "body_md": "Traffic is down across the media industry, and AI is the main reason why.\n\nThat was the throughline connecting the second-quarter earnings from The New York Times, News Corp, USA Today Co., and People Inc., all of which were reported this week.\n\nIn response to the declines, each company is implementing some version of the same three-part playbook: licensing their content to AI companies where they can; suing or blocking where they cannot; and squeezing more revenue out of the readers they have.\n\nIn describing his approach to the problem, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson has called the strategy a “woo and sue” framework.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies", "canonical_source": "https://www.adweek.com/media/woo-sue-arpu-publisher-earnings-reveal-ai-strategies/", "published_at": "2026-08-07 08:43:48+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-09 09:46:27.633188+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["The New York Times", "News Corp", "USA Today Co.", "People Inc.", "Robert Thomson"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/woo-sue-and-arpu-what-publisher-earnings-reveal-about-their-ai-strategies.jsonld"}}