Google’s AI-powered search features have reshaped the economics of online publishing, leaving outlets that once depended on the search engine for traffic with steep declines and an uncertain path forward. The shift began in 2024 with the rollout of AI Overviews, which place an AI-generated summary drawn from web pages at the top of Google Search, with links to sources ranked below it. Instead of competing for clicks on the first page of results, publishers now depend on an AI system that summarizes their work without guaranteeing users will visit the original source.
Publishers raised alarms early. The News/Media Alliance said the feature would be catastrophic for web traffic, and a 2024 Press Gazette investigation found AI Overviews appeared for almost a quarter of news-related searches in May 2024. By August, the outlet reported that AI Overviews were affecting publishers' visibility by displacing media sites that had previously held top spots for certain queries. In May 2025, Google launched AI Mode, which replaces its standard search engine with a chatbot-like interface that provides detailed summaries from web results.
The traffic data that followed was grim. A June 2025 Wall Street Journal report detailed declines at Business Insider, The Washington Post, HuffPost and the Journal itself since 2022, and Similarweb data cited by the Journal showed search traffic to The New York Times falling from 44 percent to 35.5 percent over three years. Digiday reported that 19 members of Digital Content Next, a trade association representing outlets and companies including Bloomberg, The Associated Press, The New York Times, Condé Nast and Vox Media, saw Google traffic losses of 1 to 25 percent between May and June 2025. DMG Media, owner of the Daily Mail and Metro, told the UK's Competition and Markets Authority that click-through rates fell by up to 89 percent between June and July 2025, citing AI Overviews. Pew Research also found people are less likely to click links to other websites when they see an AI Overview.
Google disputes the picture. Search head Liz Reid said last year that click volume from the search engine remained relatively stable and that AI search sends more clicks to sites with forums, videos, podcasts and posts. Nick Fox, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, told the BBC that the web is thriving from the company's point of view.
Regulators and publishers have pushed back. Lawsuits around the globe claim Google's AI search features have hurt traffic, though many have failed. US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed an antitrust case from Chegg and Penske Media, which owns Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and The Verge, and also rejected a proposed class action over AI Overviews filed by Arkansas newspapers.
Google has adjusted its presentation of sources, making them more prominent in AI Mode and AI Overviews, showing a pop-up list of articles and images when users hover over a link, and placing in-line links higher up in responses more often. The company says 400 publishers, including The Washington Post, CNN, Axios and the Financial Times, are part of its News AI pilot program licensing content for new AI features, and reports from The Information and Digiday say it is testing a program that pays publishers for use of their content in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
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