Publishers Push Back Against AI Content Scraping as User Preference for Human-Made Media Remains High
Despite the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, a recent survey indicates a strong consumer preference for news and content created by humans, leading publishers to take legal and technical steps to protect their work.
A Reuters Institute study conducted across six countries, including the United States, found that only 12% of respondents are comfortable with fully AI-generated news, while 62% prefer content created entirely by people. This preference has fueled optimism among some publishing executives, with one CEO noting that consumers still value “words and sounds and videos from humans.” However, they also acknowledge AI will inevitably capture some market share. This comes as the publishing industry faces significant economic headwinds, including recent layoffs at major outlets like CNN, Vox Media, and the Los Angeles Times.
Several publishers are actively pursuing legal action against AI companies. Penske Media, owner of Variety and Rolling Stone, is suing Google, alleging that its AI Overviews feature steals content and undermines the need for users to visit publisher websites. Ziff Davis, along with the New York Times, has filed suit against OpenAI, claiming the company scraped journalistic content to train its AI models without securing licensing agreements. “OpenAI rebuffed Ziff Davis’ attempts to negotiate a licensing deal,” a company representative stated. The legal battles highlight the growing tension between tech companies leveraging published content for AI development and publishers seeking fair compensation for their intellectual property. For more information on copyright law, see the U.S. Copyright Office website.
Beyond legal challenges, publishers are also implementing technical measures to block AI crawlers from accessing their content. Ziff Davis has adopted the RSL standard, a more robust system for preventing AI bots from scraping data, in addition to utilizing robots.txt files. The hope is a unified front from publishers will strengthen their negotiating position with large technology firms. Some analysts believe that as AI search features become more prevalent, users will actively seek out authentic, human-created content when AI responses prove insufficient, as discussed in this Search Engine Journal article.
Publishers are continuing to monitor the situation and explore strategies to adapt to the evolving landscape of AI-driven content creation and distribution.
With AI encroaching on all corners of the internet, from bogus articles to Instagram Reels, there’s concern that human-made content is under threat, and as a result, so are the film, music and publishing industries.
There are AI actresses, AI-generated music filling up Spotify and AI answers at the top of Google Search, above the 10 blue links.
But consumers of news and media remain uncomfortable with the idea of fully AI-generated content. A recent Reuters Institute survey of people in six countries, including the US, found that only 12% of people are comfortable with fully AI-generated news, compared to 62% who prefer their news entirely human-produced.
That desire for human-made content has some publishing executives optimistic, including Vivek Shah, CEO of CNET owner Ziff Davis. He said as much in a recent episode of the podcast Channels with Peter Kafka.
“The narrative around is that the declines in search traffic somehow are existential and I just don’t see it that way,” said Shah.
“I still think we prefer words and sounds and videos from humans,” he added. “Do I think that the robots will eat into some of that? I do.”
Internet search and content analysts see the same preferences among consumers.
“I also agree that as Google continues to roll out new AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, users will continue to seek authentic content from real humans,” said Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive, a marketing agency, “and when the AI answer isn’t sufficient to meet those needs, they will continue to search for content that provides that sense of real human connection.”
As AI is rapidly shifting how people find information online, publishers are moving quickly to strike deals. News Corp, Axel Springer and Future PLC have signed content licensing deals with OpenAI, for example. Other companies are taking on AI companies directly.
AI models are trained on the entire corpus of information found online, which includes published journalistic content. Recently, Penske Media, which owns Variety and Rolling Stone, sued Google over its use of AI Overviews, which gives AI-generated answers at the top of search. Penske alleges that Google is abusing its monopoly power in online search and that AI Overviews steals Penske content, circumventing the need for readers to click on articles directly.
Ziff Davis, along with the New York Times, has sued ChatGPT creator OpenAI for scraping journalistic content to train AI models rather than signing a licensing deal. Shah told Kafka that OpenAI rebuffed Ziff Davis’ attempts to negotiate a licensing deal.
OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Ziff Davis said Shah was unavailable for comment.
The strong response from publishers comes as Wall Street rewards Google, chipmaker Nvidia and OpenAI partner Microsoft with record valuations even as the publishing industry is contracting. There have been major drops in traffic across the internet in 2025. This year, too, the publishing industry has seen layoffs at CNN, Vox Media, HuffPost, the LA Times and NBC.
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Another way publishers are fighting back is by trying to block AI crawlers from scraping their content for free. Along with blocks in robots.txt, a file on a website that lays out certain permissions from online crawlers, Ziff Davis has signed on to the RSL standard, which is a more robust layer of tech that can block AI bots for sucking up content. The hope is that if enough publishers sign on, it can be enough of a united front to better bargain with Big Tech.
Despite the growing popularity of AI, Shah feels that ultimately people prefer “words and sounds and videos from humans.” He also notes that brands are increasingly trying to get their products to fill up AI search results, which isn’t good for objective purchasing decisions.
“If you start to look into citations in LLM chatbots, you’re going to see that sources have gone from journalism sources to marketing sources,” said Shah. “And so, someone’s got to measure this because I am amazed at how many citations are not publisher.com but a brand.com.”
