Commitments and Contingent Liabilities
Restricted Cash
We were required to maintain $15.0 million and $14.4 million of restricted cash as of December 31, 2025, and December 31, 2024, respectively, the majority of which is set aside to collateralize workers’ compensation obligations.
Legal Proceedings
We are involved in various legal actions incidental to our business that are now pending against us. These actions generally assert damages claims that are greatly in excess of the amount, if any, that we would be liable to pay if we lost or settled the cases. We record a liability for legal claims when a loss is probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Although the Company cannot predict the outcome of these matters, no amount of loss in excess of recorded amounts as of December 31, 2025, is believed to be reasonably possible.
On December 27, 2023, we filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), Open AI Inc. and various of its corporate affiliates (collectively, “OpenAI”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”), alleging copyright infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), related to their unlawful and unauthorized copying and use of our journalism and other content. We are seeking monetary relief, injunctive relief preventing Microsoft and OpenAI from continuing their unlawful, unfair and infringing conduct and other relief. On February 26, 2024, and March 4, 2024, respectively, OpenAI and Microsoft filed partial motions to dismiss, seeking dismissal of the unfair competition, contributory copyright infringement and DMCA claims. OpenAI also sought dismissal of a portion of the direct copyright infringement claim as being time-barred. On March 26, 2025, the court dismissed our unfair competition claim and DMCA claims, with leave to replead the latter, which we repled in part on May 28, 2025. The court permitted our other disputed claims to go forward. On April 3, 2025, the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation consolidated our case with others pending against OpenAI before our assigned judge in the SDNY. We intend to vigorously pursue all of our legal remedies in this litigation, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful in our efforts.
On December 5, 2025, we filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, Inc. (“Perplexity”) in the SDNY, alleging copyright infringement, trademark dilution and trademark infringement, related to Perplexity’s unlawful and unauthorized copying and use of our journalism and other content. We are seeking monetary relief, injunctive relief preventing Perplexity from continuing its unlawful and infringing conduct and other relief. We intend to vigorously pursue all of our legal remedies in this litigation, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful in our efforts.