News Publishers Report Steep Traffic Drops Following Google’s AI Search Integration
London, UK – News organizations are facing a meaningful challenge as website traffic plummets following Google’s integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its search results. Publishers are reporting considerable declines in referrals from Google search, raising concerns about financial sustainability and the future of online journalism.
Financial pressures already weigh heavily on news sites due too rising costs, declining advertising revenue, and the downturn in print media.Now, the increasing trend of readers obtaining information directly from AI-powered search results, rather than clicking through to news websites, is exacerbating the problem.
John Selid, CEO of the Financial Times, revealed at a recent press conference that his website has experienced a ”sudden and continuous” 25% to 30% decrease in traffic originating from Google search. The Daily Mail’s owner reported an even more dramatic drop, citing an 89% decrease in traffic to its sites attributed to google’s AI Overview (AIOOPO).
DMG Media, which owns numerous prominent UK media brands, has formally requested the Competition Control Authority to investigate Google’s practices, specifically calling for “Transparently Providing publishers with traffic statistics from AIOOPO as part of its achievement in the company’s technical domination of the field of research.”
Beyond traffic concerns, experts are also raising questions about the accuracy of AI-generated information. Concerns center around “hallucinations” - instances where AI presents incorrect or fabricated information as fact – and “integrated bias,” where algorithms make editorial decisions about summarizing sources. Earlier this year, Apple addressed issues with its AI feature after it incorrectly reported that the suspect in an American insurance executive’s murder had died by suicide and falsely claimed tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.Google, however, disputes the claims of traffic decline. liz Reid,head of Google Research,asserts that the introduction of AI in search increases the number of inquiries and “high-quality clicks.” She claims reports of decreased traffic are based on “defective methodologies” and that traffic shifts occurred before the rollout of AI features.
Reid further stated that overall traffic to all websites remains “relatively stable,” explaining that the expansion of the search network is diversifying user behavior, leading to traffic gains for some sites and losses for others.
