The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) has become an affiliate member of the Spur Coalition – an initiative shaping the rules, standards, and infrastructure that enable a fair and constructive working relationship between the news media and the artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, according to the alliance that brings together 33 news agencies to promote press freedom, copyright protection, and professional cooperation.
Initiated by BBC, Financial Times, Sky News, Guardian Media Group, Telegraph Media Group, and others, the Spur Coalition works to shape the technical and commercial environment in which intellectual property owners can control and monitor the use of their content by generative AI applications. By joining the coalition, EANA reinforces its commitment to ensuring that the collective voice of its member news agencies is heard in the global debate on how original journalism is valued, protected, and remunerated in the era of generative artificial intelligence.
Through this affiliation, EANA members gain discounted Spur membership which in turn provides shared resources, technical standards development, and a unified advocacy platform that places news agencies at the center of global discussions on content licensing, usage transparency, and fair value exchange between publishers and AI developers. The partnership ensures that EANA members – all of which are serving as the primary source of original, verified reporting in and from their respective countries and also globally – are represented in the standard-setting processes that will define the relationship between journalism and AI for years to come.
“EANA’s affiliation with the Spur Coalition is a natural extension of our mission to defend the interests of news agencies and the journalism they produce. For seventy years now, our alliance has stood for cooperation, news accuracy and trustworthiness, and the public value of that trusted information. Joining Spur allows us to bring that voice into one of the most consequential debates of today – how the work of journalists is respected and valued in the age of generative AI. We look forward to contributing the perspective of Europe’s leading news agencies to the coalition’s work,” said Alexandru Giboi, Secretary General of the European Alliance of News Agencies.
Spur co-founder David Buttle said that the Spur Coalition was delighted that EANA has joined as an affiliate member. “The news agencies that EANA represents produce trusted, reliable journalism that is profoundly valuable to those developing and deploying AI systems. Too often, this value flows to those who access and use intellectual property without permission or payment. The Spur Coalition was founded to change that. We are building open technical standards that give publishers visibility and control over how their content is used within AI applications, and that make a functioning licensing market possible. The coalition’s breadth is a testament to how critical its mission is for the sector, and for society.”
The Spur Coalition is a non-profit industry coalition initiated by organizations that invest in the creation of original journalism. Its mission is to develop shared standards for content usage reporting and to shape the technical and commercial infrastructure that enables publishers and AI platforms to transact transparently. Founding members include BBC, Financial Times, Sky News, Guardian Media Group, Telegraph Media Group, and the Associated Press. Membership is open globally to organizations whose primary activity is the creation of original journalism; trade bodies may apply for affiliate membership.
