Publishers say AI chatbots use their reporting to answer readers' questions while sending back less traffic and less money. Funke Media Group publisher Julia Becker told a panel at the Global Media Forum in Berlin that the traditional exchange with search engines "has broken down." DW Director General Barbara Massing said AI companies draw on quality reporting, yet that reporting "often remains largely invisible" by the end of the process.
A 2026 Reuters Institute survey of more than 90,000 people worldwide found that 10% use AI chatbots for news weekly. The figure is significantly higher among younger audiences.
In October, German broadcasters ARD and RTL, along with the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) and the Association of Private Media (VAUNET), called for stronger copyright protections for media companies. In the US, The New York Times has sued Brave Software for allegedly using its content without permission and getting around its paywall. European Court of Justice examinations of whether AI-generated answers can infringe copyright are also underway, according to the source.
In February, a coalition including the Guardian, the BBC and the Financial Times called for rules giving publishers more control over how AI systems copy and reproduce their content.
Martin Senftleben, who directs the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam, separated two uses: training AI models, and generating responses to individual questions. He said payment for training is legally more complicated. He argued that existing EU copyright law may already let publishers and journalists claim payment collectively. He suggested a required payment system in which each AI response drawing on journalism triggers a payment, collected and distributed by a collecting organization, similar to music royalties.
Lutz Mache, senior manager of government affairs and public policy at Google, told the panel that Google is willing to negotiate agreements with German media companies. Google's "AI Contribution" pilot, tested with selected publishers, aims to reward content used in Gemini and AI Overviews answers. The source describes it as an early experiment, not a general payment system. Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI have said they support clearer, standardized signals that let website owners state whether their content may be used to train AI models.
Jörg Heidrich, a technology lawyer and AI commissioner at the German media company Heise, warned against new rules that ignore effects on the wider tech sector. He argued that Europe has already fallen behind in the global AI race and that more regulation could make it harder for European companies to compete. He also pointed to startups, independent developers and research institutions that depend on data access.