Reach Claims Two-Year Google AI Deal, Sends Cease-and-Desist to OpenAI

Reach has signed a two-year deal giving Google paid access to news content from its U.K. and Ireland portfolio, and it has sent OpenAI a cease-and-desist letter over scraping. CEO Piers North is positioning the Google agreement as a template for future licensing partnerships with large language model (LLM) companies, the AI systems that generate text from trained data.

Reach publishes the Daily Express, the Daily Star and OK! Magazine. Under the agreement, Google obtains expanded rights to use news content from the publisher's British and Irish titles in its news AI pilot. Google can deploy that content in experimental AI features and new formats for delivering news. The two companies will also study whether those features help engage audiences.

Why does the deal matter to other publishers?

North frames the terms as a model for the industry. The publisher is simultaneously escalating pressure on AI firms that use its journalism without payment. The cease-and-desist letter to OpenAI signals that Reach will pursue licensing on its terms or legal remedies instead. Digiday first reported the two-year duration of the deal.

How does Google's wider program fit in?

Google runs several AI pilots alongside the Reach agreement. Its pay-per-value AI contribution pilot (a program that compensates publishers based on the value their content adds to AI outputs) works with smaller publishers. Google says more than 200 publications globally have joined its news AI pilot program. The company also continues to operate Google News Showcase, its earlier licensing product for publishers.

For Reach, the Google deal tests a proposition the whole publishing sector is watching: whether paid content licensing can coexist with AI-driven distribution, or whether AI features will simply replace the referral traffic publishers depend on. The two-year term gives both sides time to measure audience engagement before any longer commitment.

The immediate pressure point is OpenAI. Reach's legal letter sets a deadline of sorts for the AI firm: negotiate a license on terms similar to Google's, or face a fight over unauthorized use of content. With more than 200 publishers already inside Google's pilot, the market for AI licensing is consolidating quickly, and publishers without deals hold fewer cards.