Publishers with announced OpenAI content deals receive 24.3% of ChatGPT's citations when it answers news questions, 2.2 times their 11.2% share of Google News results for the same questions.
Analysis of 1,556 ChatGPT news answers and 2,000 Google News result pages · ChatGPT answers and Google News results, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.Publishers with OpenAI content deals receive 24.3% of ChatGPT's news citations, 2.2 times their 11.2% share of Google News results.
- 2.OpenAI's news partners make up 11.2% of Google News results for news questions, about one in nine, but almost one in four of ChatGPT's news citations.
- 3.AP News is the OpenAI partner ChatGPT cites most, in 165 news answers, followed by the Guardian (87) and People (50).
- 4.Reuters, which is not on the list of announced OpenAI partners, is ChatGPT's most-cited news outlet, in 250 news answers.
- 5.Some OpenAI partners are cited far less often: the Washington Post appears in 25 ChatGPT news answers, the Wall Street Journal in 17 and Axios in 16.
Summary
Ask ChatGPT what happened in the news today and the answer comes with a short list of sources. Look closely and a pattern appears: AP News, the Guardian, People, the Washington Post. These are publishers that have announced content deals with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and they turn up far more often than their weight in ordinary news results would suggest.
For publishers, a citation in an AI answer is a link in front of a reader who may never open a news site directly. For PR and communications teams, the outlets ChatGPT cites decide which coverage reaches the people asking it about a company or an event. Knowing where its citations go tells both groups where coverage travels furthest.
The gap is large. OpenAI's partners hold 24.3% of ChatGPT's news citations, against 11.2% of Google News results, 2.2 times their share. The data shows where the citations go, not why: the single most-cited outlet, Reuters, has no announced deal.
What we measured
On September 23, 2026 we asked ChatGPT 1,000 news questions, twice each and six hours apart, giving 1,556 answers. We ran the same questions through Google News, collecting 2,000 result pages, to measure how often each publisher appears in ordinary news results.
A news citation is a source link in a ChatGPT answer that points to a news outlet, meaning a publisher that appears in those Google News results. A partner is an outlet owned by a publisher with an announced OpenAI content deal. The Google News share is the baseline: if partners get 11.2% of Google News results and 24.3% of ChatGPT's news citations, ChatGPT cites them 2.2 times as often as the news itself would predict.
AP News leads the OpenAI partners in ChatGPT
AP News is the partner ChatGPT cites most, in 165 news answers, followed by the Guardian (87), People (50) and Entertainment Weekly (33). The Washington Post (25), the Wall Street Journal (17) and Axios (16) come next.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 1,556 ChatGPT news answers and 2,000 Google News result pages · ChatGPT answers and Google News results, September 2026
The partner list is uneven. AP News appears in almost as many answers as the Guardian, People and Entertainment Weekly combined, while Business Insider, the Financial Times and Time turn up in a handful of answers each. A content deal puts a publisher on the list; it does not put every partner at the top.
Reuters has no announced deal and leads ChatGPT anyway
A deal is not the only route into ChatGPT's answers. Reuters, which is not on the list of announced OpenAI partners, is ChatGPT's most-cited news outlet overall, in 250 answers, well ahead of AP News at 165. For a publicist, a Reuters story can reach ChatGPT users as readily as coverage in any partner outlet.
What this means for publishers and communications teams
If you pitch news, treat the outlets ChatGPT cites most as a priority list: AP News, Reuters, the Guardian and CBS News all appear often. A story placed there is more likely to reach the people who ask ChatGPT about your company, product or sector than the same story in an outlet it rarely cites.
Check each AI engine separately, because each keeps its own list of favorite outlets, and a campaign aimed at several engines needs a spread of outlets. Publishers weighing a content deal should note how far partner citations sit above the Google News baseline. Our media relations services start from the outlets each AI engine cites for your topic, so your PR effort goes where the citations are.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-cites-news-partners">ChatGPT Cites OpenAI's News Partners 2.2x as Often as Google News Does - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). ChatGPT Cites OpenAI's News Partners 2.2x as Often as Google News Does. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-cites-news-partners
ChatGPT Cites OpenAI's News Partners 2.2x as Often as Google News Does - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-cites-news-partners
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