A demand letter over something you said, wrote, posted or published. Which policy answers it depends on what your business is.
Defamation insurance is not one product. A plumber who says something unwise about a competitor is covered by the personal and advertising injury part of general liability. A podcast, a newsletter, a channel or an agency that produces content is excluded from that same grant and needs a media liability form. This page says which you are, what each form pays, and what it costs.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What defamation actually covers.
Libel and slander under general liability
The personal and advertising injury grant on a standard general liability policy: a written or spoken statement about a person or business that they say was false and damaging, made in the course of your ordinary business.
Without it — A defamation claim against a non-media business is defended and paid from the same $1,000,000 limit that answers a slip and fall. Nothing is owed by the business itself until the limit is spent.
Defamation under media liability
The same claim, brought against a business whose product is the content: a publisher, a podcast, a channel, a newsletter, an advertising or PR agency, an author.
Without it — General liability excludes personal and advertising injury for any insured in the business of advertising, broadcasting, publishing or telecasting. A monetized channel is one, and the claim lands on the owner.
Defense costs
The lawyers and the court costs for a covered claim, whether or not it had merit.
Without it — Most defamation claims end in a bill for defending them rather than a judgment. A publisher without the form pays that bill in full, and a baseless claim costs the same to defend as a good one.
AI-generated statements
A false statement about a real person that an AI tool wrote and your business published, whether in a post, a script, a product description or a chatbot answer.
Without it — From January 2026 a general liability policy can carry a generative-AI exclusion (ISO CG 40 48) that removes personal and advertising injury arising out of generative AI. Media forms are choosing their own posture, and the ones that still cover it say so in writing.
Retroactive coverage
On a media form, claims made during the policy period about content published after the retroactive date.
Without it — Everything published before that date is uninsured for good. A first policy defaults to the day it starts unless a prior date is negotiated.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A review, a callout or an accusation about a named person or business
Covered by General liability for a non-media business; media liability for a publisher
Truth is a defense argued after the claim arrives. The cost of proving the statement true is the loss, and it is the same size whether you win or lose.
Common
A guest, an employee or a contractor says it on your platform
Covered by Media liability, with the publisher as the named defendant
The claim is addressed to whoever published the statement, not to whoever said it. A guest release protects you from the guest and not from the person the guest talked about.
Less common, severe
An AI tool invents a fact about a real person and your business repeats it
Covered by Media liability without a generative-AI exclusion; some tech E&O and cyber forms with an affirmative AI endorsement
In Walters v. OpenAI the developer won because it warned users the output could be wrong. A business that publishes the output has no such defense; it is the publisher, and the warning was addressed to it.
Less common, severe
A statement in an advertisement disparages a competitor’s product
Covered by General liability’s advertising injury grant, subject to its exclusions
Knowing falsity is excluded on every form. A comparison claim made with the numbers in hand is defended; one made without them may not be.
Where defamation shows up.
- Journalists & Local News
General liability’s personal and advertising injury grant excludes insureds in the business of publishing or broadcasting, which a news channel is.
- PR Firms
Truth is a defense argued in court, after the bills begin.
What the policy will not cover.
Pick a procedure to see what the exclusion actually means and whether it can be placed somewhere else.
Every form in this family, general liability and media alike, carries the same short list. It is the list a claims adjuster reads first.
What defamation coverage excludes
Knowing falsity
A statement made knowing it was false, or with reckless disregard for whether it was, is excluded. Negligence is covered; malice is not.
Can it be placed? No form covers it. The defense of the allegation is usually still paid until intent is established.
Prior publication
Material first published before the policy began, or on a media form before the retroactive date. Reposting an old statement does not restart the clock.
Can it be placed? Yes, by negotiating a retroactive date that reaches the catalog, which is done at the first policy and is expensive to add later.
Media businesses on a general liability form
Personal and advertising injury is excluded for any insured whose business is advertising, broadcasting, publishing or telecasting, and for anyone hosting or providing content for others.
Can it be placed? Yes, on a media liability policy. This is the exclusion that sends creators to the other form.
Generative AI, where the endorsement is attached
ISO CG 40 48, offered to carriers from January 2026, removes personal and advertising injury arising out of generative artificial intelligence. Whether your renewal carries it is a question for the declarations page, not for memory.
Can it be placed? Yes, through a media or tech E&O form that covers AI affirmatively, or by negotiating the endorsement off.
Contractual liability
A promise in a contract to indemnify a studio, a platform or a client for defamation is not covered by the form unless it is liability you would have had anyway.
Can it be placed? Partly. Media forms often extend to contractual defamation claims; the indemnity itself is what the contract review is for.
What clients with defamation ask us.
Does business insurance cover defamation?
For most businesses, yes, through the personal and advertising injury grant on general liability, which includes libel and slander. For a business whose product is content, no: that same grant excludes advertising, broadcasting, publishing and telecasting businesses, and a monetized channel, a podcast or an agency is one. Those businesses buy media liability, which is written to cover exactly the claims general liability excludes.
What is the difference between libel and slander insurance?
Libel is written or recorded, slander is spoken, and no policy in this family draws a line between them. Both sit inside the personal and advertising injury grant on general liability and inside the defamation grant on a media form. The word on the application does not change the price or the cover. What changes both is who you are: a contractor with a rude review of a rival, or a publisher whose rude reviews are the product.
What does defamation insurance cost?
For a non-media business it costs nothing extra: it is inside a general liability policy that most small businesses buy for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year. For publishers and creators it is the media liability premium, which industry ranges put at roughly $500 to $2,500 a year for a small blog or author and $2,500 to $15,000 for $1,000,000 of limit on a business with real revenue. Our own placements for creators and video producers land inside that range; $5,000,000 for a video production client was about $8,000 a year.
Am I covered if an AI tool wrote the defamatory statement?
It depends on the form and, since January 2026, on an endorsement. ISO published generative-AI exclusions for general liability that year, and one of them (CG 40 48) removes personal and advertising injury arising out of generative AI. A media form can carry a similar exclusion or cover AI output affirmatively; Beazley has said publicly it does not plan to exclude AI, and several tech E&O and cyber carriers now add AI endorsements. The publisher is liable either way. The only question is whether a policy pays.
Is an opinion defamation?
A statement that cannot be proven true or false is generally not defamation, and courts protect opinion. The trouble is that a review reads as opinion until it states a fact inside it: "the food was awful" is opinion, "the kitchen failed its health inspection" is a fact that had better be true. The claim arrives over the fact, and the defense costs are the same whether the fact was checked or not. A written clearance routine is the cheapest insurance in this family.
Someone is threatening to sue me for a post. What do I do first?
Report it to your carrier before you respond, because most policies require notice of a claim or a circumstance that could become one, and a reply written without counsel can become an exhibit. Do not delete the post until you have been told to; preserving it is usually required. Then send the letter to us and we will tell you which policy answers it and whether the retroactive date reaches the publication.
Does a personal umbrella cover defamation?
A personal umbrella usually includes personal injury, which is the insurance term for libel, slander and invasion of privacy committed by you as a private person. It excludes anything arising from a business. A creator whose channel makes money is a business for that purpose, and the umbrella carrier will say so when the claim is over an episode with a sponsor in it. Business speech needs a business policy.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.