Reach CEO Piers North told Digiday that the publisher had sent OpenAI the next stage in a legal process over the alleged use of Reach content. Digiday described the communication as a cease-and-desist letter. In the interview, published Oct. 16, 2026, North also presented Reach’s separate Google AI licensing agreement as a possible framework for future publisher deals. Digiday’s report

What Reach says it sent OpenAI

North said Reach had escalated its dispute with OpenAI over alleged content use. He also said Reach’s access logs showed OpenAI bots accessing the publisher’s content millions of times a month, while noting that it can be difficult to distinguish scraping from other bot and human traffic.

Reach separately said it had observed well over 100 million successful scrapes across its portfolio over the six months before the interview. That portfolio-wide figure and North’s monthly estimate of OpenAI bot activity refer to different counts and scopes.

How the Google agreement fits Reach’s approach

Digiday reported that Google paid for expanded rights to use news content from Reach’s UK and Ireland portfolio in Google’s news AI pilot. Digiday understood the agreement to have a two-year time frame. North said the deal lets Reach monetize its content and see how it is used, information he expects to help the publisher assess the agreement’s value and inform future renewal discussions.

Google’s broader pilot description gives examples of what participating publishers may test: AI-generated article overviews on their Google News pages and audio briefings, with attribution and links to articles. Google described those features in its Dec. 10, 2025 announcement. The same announcement separately said Google had partnered with more than 3,000 publications, platforms and content providers across more than 50 countries in the preceding few years. That figure covers Google’s broader partnerships, not the news AI pilot.

A separate reported deal with Amazon

On March 2, 2026, Press Gazette reported that Reach had signed a separate agreement covering use of its content in Amazon Nova and Alexa, with compensation based on usage. Press Gazette’s post reported the arrangement.