I believe you might be referring to John Wiley Sons Cl A (WLY) . I had owned this years ago and see it is now has a $2.08 Billion market cap, trades at a 11.17x PE pays a 3.6% div.
Wiley's Data/Content Ownership and Licensing - Wiley, as a major academic publisher, manages a vast library of content, including books, research journals, and other educational materials. Their approach to content ownership and licensing is multifaceted:
- Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) or Exclusive License Agreement (ELA): For most subscription articles published in Wiley journals, authors typically either transfer their copyright to Wiley (via a CTA) or grant Wiley an exclusive license to the copyright (via an ELA). This gives Wiley significant control over the content's distribution and use.
- Open Access (Creative Commons Licenses): For open access articles, authors usually retain their copyright and publish under a Creative Commons license. While the author keeps the copyright, they grant Wiley a license to publish the article and identify as the original publisher. These licenses allow for broader public reuse under specific conditions (e.g., attribution, non-commercial use, no derivatives, depending on the specific CC license type).
- Wiley-Owned Content ("Wiley Content"): Wiley asserts that all rights (including copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets) in their services and content, other than content submitted by users, are and will remain their sole and exclusive property and/or that of their licensors. This "Wiley Content" is distinct from "Your Content" (content users might add, like blog comments), for which users grant Wiley a broad license to use.
- Third-Party Material: Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from copyright owners to reproduce any third-party material within their contributions and must include appropriate acknowledgment.
- Author Re-use Rights: Even when copyright is transferred, authors often retain certain re-use rights for their own work, such as using it in their own publications, theses, or course packs at their institution. These rights vary depending on the journal and the specific agreement.
- Society-Owned Journals: Wiley also publishes on behalf of numerous professional and scholarly societies. In these cases, the societies often decide on the specific licensing forms they require, which may differ from Wiley's standard agreements.
In essence, for the majority of their published content, Wiley either owns the copyright directly or holds an exclusive license to it, allowing them to control its commercialization and distribution. For Open Access content, authors retain copyright, but Wiley is licensed to publish and manage it.
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I asked Gemini 2.5 Flash to describe how WLY could monitize their content using AI
Wiley's AI Monetization Strategy (WLY):
Wiley's approach is focused on licensing its high-quality, authoritative educational and research content for AI training and development.
- Content Type: Primarily copyrighted books, peer-reviewed research journals, and learning materials.
- Copyright & Licensing: Wiley typically owns or holds exclusive licenses to the copyright of most of its published content. They explicitly state there is no implied permission for AI developers to use their content without a formal license. They require formal authorization for using their content for AI training or operations.
- Monetization Methods:
- Direct Licensing: Wiley has developed "Wiley AI Rights" licensing frameworks, offering flexible terms tailored to various AI use cases (model training, fine-tuning, RAG). These licenses often provide machine-readable content in XML format.
- Partnerships: They are actively engaging in partnerships, such as with Perplexity (integrating content into AI search with attribution) and Amazon Web Services (collaborating on a generative AI agent for scientific literature search).
- High-Margin Revenue: Wiley has reported booking significant AI-training fees, viewing this as a functioning market. They emphasize that licensing is a high-margin and attractive revenue source.
- Ethical Stance: Wiley advocates for ethical and legal data sourcing practices in the AI industry, emphasizing compensation and attribution for content creators.
- Internal AI Use: While focused on external licensing, Wiley also adopts AI internally to enhance publishing efficiency, detect research integrity issues, and provide AI tools to employees.
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I own Genpact Ltd (G). They are a management consulting firm and help companies integrate AI into their business. Selling at a 14.7x PE . I started buying this 4/2024 (13 Buys) and now have an avg cost of $31.22/share. It's +36%. A great sector, AI consulting at a reasonable price.
This news last week s/d help continue their growth
Genpact Ltd (G) recently acquired XponentL Data to help advance their AI consulting business.
The acquisition was announced and closed on June 5, 2025. XponentL Data is a provider of data products and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, specializing in data strategy, design, and engineering, particularly with domain-led expertise and strategic partnerships with platforms like Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft.
This acquisition is intended to bolster Genpact's capabilities in helping clients with their AI transformation journeys, from strategy to implementation, and to strengthen their "AI Gigafactory" and "Service-as-Agentic-Solutions" initiatives
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WLY (John Wiley & Sons) is cheap enough to start a tracking position and if management can monitize their AI is some way similar to what Genpact is doing, it could accelerate growth.
FWIW in the early 80's I worked on a project at Lockheed where we created the 1st searchable database similar to what WLY has and sold it to Libraries & Universities (on-line) around the world. We were Google before Google and even located near them at the Stanford Research Industrial Park.
The data that WLY owns & licenses if structured correctly could indeed create the next "AI Gigafactory".
Thanks for the idea. |
