The SPUR Coalition, of which the Independent Media Association is a member, says it has nearly doubled its reach since launching earlier this year, as the publisher-led initiative steps up work on technical standards designed to give news organisations greater control over how their content is used by AI systems.
In its first all-member update, SPUR revealed it has welcomed almost 60 members, held more than 150 meetings with prospective publishers worldwide, and is close to finalising the legal framework for its industry-owned, non-profit organisation.
Much of SPUR's recent work has focused on developing its Content Telemetry Standard, which aims to give publishers greater visibility over how their content is used by AI systems. Following a public consultation that closed in July, SPUR said feedback from publishers, developers and standards organisations had already led to changes, including stronger privacy protections and more vendor-neutral reporting. A new version is expected later this month.
For Independent Media Association members specifically, participation in SPUR means contributing to the development of industry standards that could shape how publishers engage with AI developers in the years ahead.
Alongside the standards work, SPUR has completed its first threat-intelligence exercises, testing publisher defences against scraper and crawler technologies. A report outlining key trends and recommendations is expected to be shared with members in the coming weeks.
Alongside its growing membership, SPUR notes it has continued to expand its engagement across the AI ecosystem. The Associated Press joined the coalition as a founder member in July, while discussions also continued with major AI developers, including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral, alongside infrastructure providers such as Cloudflare and Fastly.
SPUR says the coming months will be focused on turning its technical work into wider industry adoption, alongside formally establishing the coalition as a legal entity.