"Information NATO": Should Media Outlets Unite Against AI?
Faced with plummeting traffic and massive content usage by AI, the idea of a media alliance is emerging. Should we wait for regulators or act now to monetize?
"Information NATO." The expression is strong, and it perfectly summarizes the urgency of the situation. Between the CMA investigations in the UK, government statements on third-party platforms, and the growing idea of a collective media alliance, the power dynamic between news publishers and Artificial Intelligence models is taking a new turn.
The subject is no longer theoretical. It has become profoundly political, economic, and structural for the future of the web.
The Crisis of Trust and the Traffic Drain
The starting point is clear. The latest report published by the Reuters Institute in late 2025 sounds the alarm: only 38% of audiences say they still trust news media. A historically low level.
This erosion is part of a radical transformation in user habits. While younger generations now get their news primarily via TikTok or YouTube, the growing use of generative AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude) instead of traditional search engines is drastically reducing traffic to news sites.
AI models summarize, quote (sometimes), and capture value... without a clear framework or systematic compensation for original creators.
The Emergence of an "Information NATO"
Faced with this crisis, hybridizing formats or creating newsletters will not be enough. This is where the idea of a collective response comes in.
Madhav Chinnappa, a former Google executive, recently called for the creation of an "Information NATO". The goal? To form an international alliance among media outlets to:
- Negotiate collectively with AI giants.
- Impose fair remuneration standards.
- Rebuild a genuine balance of power.
Without this coordination, the risk is twofold: a fatal economic impoverishment for newsrooms and an increased fragmentation of the public space where reliable information drowns amid low-quality content.
The Real Question: Who Will Organize Monetization?
Today, the debate has moved past the "Should we regulate?" stage. The real question is: who will organize the monetization?
The basic principle should be simple: if AIs massively use publisher content to train their models or generate answers, a viable economic model is needed. This relies on three pillars:
- Transparency: Knowing exactly who is crawling what.
- Control: Being able to block or allow access.
- Remuneration: Being paid for the value provided.
Don't Wait for Regulators: The Senthor Approach
While regulators (like the CMA in the UK) ponder the ideal legal framework, the market is not waiting. Bots continue to crawl petabytes of data every day.
At Senthor, we have chosen immediate action. We provide the technical infrastructure today that allows publishers to:
- Accurately measure which AI bots access which content on their site.
- Decide in real-time: let pass, block, or charge for access.
- Implement a "Pay per crawl" logic, technically ready to be deployed.
Conclusion: The Pie Isn't Disappearing, It's Being Redistributed
The question is no longer whether such a system is technically possible. Everything is already here. The question is: who will press the button first?
The value generated by information on the web is not going to disappear; it is simply being redistributed. Publishers and media outlets that anticipate this shift by equipping themselves with the right measurement and monetization tools will have a real head start in this new era of the internet.