The Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR) alliance announced the expansion of its membership on Tuesday. The latest additions have nearly doubled the number of participating media organisations, according to a report published by BOL News.
The alliance, launched in February 2026, already included prominent media organisations such as the BBC, the Financial Times and the Associated Press. The expanded group now includes The New York Times, The Economist and Agence France-Presse (AFP), among others.
SPUR aims to help publishers monitor how their journalistic material is used, identify potential copyright violations and negotiate commercial agreements with AI developers behind services such as ChatGPT and Claude.
David Buttle, the alliance’s co-founder and spokesperson, said support for building a fair and sustainable information economy was growing rapidly.
He noted that quality journalism played an important role in developing AI models, but publishers currently had limited effective means of ensuring they received fair compensation when their work was used.
The alliance seeks to strengthen publishers’ ability to protect their intellectual property and negotiate appropriate terms for the commercial use of their content.
AFP Chairman and Chief Executive Fabrice Fries said millions of people relied on AI assistants daily to obtain information, with many responses drawing on facts gathered and verified by journalists at news organisations.
He stressed the importance of recognising original journalistic work, providing proper attribution and paying fair compensation for its use.
Fries added that tracking the use of journalistic content was not merely a matter of intellectual property rights but was also essential to maintaining public trust.
The alliance’s expansion comes amid growing global disputes over AI companies’ use of news reports and other published material to develop and operate their systems.
Media organisations have increasingly called for stronger copyright protections, greater transparency about how their content is used and fair commercial arrangements with AI developers.
Through collective action, SPUR aims to give publishers a stronger negotiating position and establish more effective ways to protect their content and secure compensation for its use in AI services.