BUSINESS INFO - PT Info Media Digital, or Tempo Digital, is officially developing a new business line today as a provider of journalistic content and data for artificial intelligence (AI) companies and platforms.
This strategy is being implemented through two complementary steps. First, Tempo has begun blocking AI bots that retrieve, archive, and use Tempo content without consent. Second, Tempo is providing an official channel for AI companies to acquire content in a legal, transparent, measurable way and paid for a fee through the OpenMined infrastructure.
AI companies and tech developers requiring Tempo content can access this service through the following:
https://syfthub.openmined.org/tempo
Through this system, AI companies can gain access to content as needed, using schemes such as pay-per-request. Each use can be regulated based on license, content type, volume, intended use, and economic value.
"This policy is not intended to hinder AI development. Instead, Tempo wants to ensure that AI innovation thrives in a healthy, transparent information ecosystem that provides appropriate rewards to those who produce information," said Wahyu Dhyatmika, Director of Digital Transformation at Tempo Media Group.
Tempo's Response to AI Disruption
The development of this business line marks Tempo's latest response to the fundamental changes in the information distribution ecosystem that have occurred since early 2025.
The growth of AI-based search engines, AI Overview, generative chatbots, and various information aggregation services has transformed the way people discover and consume news. There is a growing phenomenon of media content being retrieved, summarized, and presented directly by AI platforms without sending users back to the publisher's site (zero click).
These changes have contributed to a decline in media site traffic and programmatic advertising revenue. At Tempo, pageviews throughout 2025 fell by around 33.5 percent compared to the previous year, while users fell by around 19.4 percent. This dip in traffic has directly impacted programmatic advertising revenue, which has traditionally relied on the number of visits and ad impressions.
At the same time, journalistic content remains a key ingredient to improve the accuracy, relevance, and credibility of answers provided by AI systems.
This situation creates economic inequality. Media companies bear the costs of journalistic production—from reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, fact-checkers, technology, servers, digital security, and verification processes—while their economic value can be captured and monetized by AI platforms without adequate consent mechanisms and compensation.
Therefore, Tempo deems content licensing for AI as a new, crucial revenue source for the sustainability of journalism.
Revenue from content-providing to AI platforms is expected to gradually offset the decline in programmatic advertising revenue while also funding the production of independent, investigative, and quality journalism.
From blockage to official data market
During the initial phase, Tempo is blocking bot categories such as AI crawlers, AI search engines, and archivers that retrieve content for the development and operation of AI systems.
"The blockage will be implemented in stages to allow Tempo to evaluate the impact on content distribution, server performance, organic traffic, and the overall digital business," said the Chief Technology Officer at Tempo Digital, Heru Tjatur Tjahja.
Bots used for news distribution through general search engines will be mapped separately to avoid interference with the public's need to find Tempo information. "Blocked AI bots will be directed to the official OpenMined channel if they wish to use Tempo content," said Heru.
Thus, Heru went on, Tempo's strategy goes beyond simply blocking the access. Tempo is transforming the current unauthorized content-harvesting scheme into a legitimate and fair business relationship between content owners and tech firms.
Through this mechanism, AI platforms still obtain quality content, but with clear terms of use, attribution, control, recording of usage instances, and compensation to press publishers.
Supported by Collaboration Between OpenMined, AMSI, and IFPIM
OpenMined is a non-profit foundation and global tech community developing open-source software to enable secure, controlled access and use of data while remaining within the authority of data owners.
In developing a model for the media industry, OpenMined partnered with RadicalxChange to build the concept of a 'trusted data intermediary.' This infrastructure is designed to help media organizations manage permits, control usage, determine pricing, and strengthen their bargaining position when negotiating with companies developing large language models (LLMs).
The experiment in Indonesia is part of a joint strategy with the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI), with support from the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM).
Three AMSI member media companies are the initial participants in the pilot project: Tempo; Hukumonline; and Republika. These three media outlets have signed contracts to provide data to Sahabat.AI, an Indonesian-language AI platform developed by Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and GoTo, supported by NVIDIA technology and Indonesia's national AI ecosystem.
This collaboration demonstrates the path for an equal relationship between AI companies and publishers. Publishers provide quality, accountable content, while AI companies obtain data through official channels with clear usage rights.
Towards a sovereign and equitable AI ecosystem
"We hope this initiative will inspire other digital media companies in Indonesia and the Global South," said the CEO of Tempo Digital, Wahyu Dhyatmika.
Global South countries possess languages, local knowledge, history, culture, and social context that are invaluable for AI development. However, without proper governance, this wealth of information is at risk of being captured and controlled by a handful of global tech companies. There is a significant imbalance in bargaining power between tech giants, many of which are based in the United States, and media companies in the Global South.
Therefore, according to Wahyu, Tempo believes that developing a sovereign AI must move beyond establishing data centers, computing infrastructure, or language models. It also requires sovereignty over data, content, language, economic rights, and usage rules.
A healthy AI ecosystem cannot be built by disempowering those who produce knowledge. Quality AI requires quality journalism, while quality journalism requires a sustainable economic model in the era of AI.
A call for legal protection
To perfect this new business line, Tempo hopes for government support, particularly from the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of Communication and Digital, and the House of Representatives, to strengthen protection for journalistic content in the revised Copyright Law.
The revision should emphasize that the retrieval, copying, model training, grounding, retrieval-augmented generation, summarization, and commercial use of journalistic content by AI systems must be subject to the consent of rights holders and include licensing and compensation mechanisms.
A clear legal framework will provide certainty to both parties. Publishers gain economic protection and rights, while AI developers acquire legal access to quality content.
Tempo believes that technological innovation and copyright protection are not two conflicting objectives. Instead, they must be developed simultaneously to achieve wide-ranging benefits from AI development, maintain information diversity, and strengthen democracy.
About Tempo Digital
Tempo Digital, or PT Info Media Digital, is a media and technology company developing an information ecosystem based on journalism, digital subscriptions, data, education, multimedia, and technology. Tempo is committed to building a credible, independent, and sustainable information infrastructure for the people of Indonesia.
