"Earlier this year, media executives got together at the Digiday Publishing Summit (DPS) in March to voice their frustration with declining referral traffic. It seems not much has changed since then. This week, execs aired their grievances around Google search, especially with the expansion of AI-generated summaries AI Overviews on the search results page. Google felt like the bully in the room."
"We are not seeing our traffic stabilize and we are way down year over year... It's a cliff, and it's definitely not stabilizing, at least from our perspective... It has forced us to think about everything else. What are the other traffic sources? What's the most exposed, what's less exposed? Which is a healthy exercise, like it's the right thing to do."
Publishing executives reported steep declines in referral traffic from Google search after the expansion of AI-generated summaries (AI Overviews) on the results page. The drop accelerated sharply in late March and has not stabilized, with publishers seeing year-over-year falls that feel like a cliff. Traffic losses from Google have not been offset by emergent AI-driven sources such as OpenAI or Perplexity. The referral decline has prompted publishers to reassess distribution strategies, diversify traffic sources, and invest in channels like newsletters. Some publishers expressed guarded optimism about mitigation strategies, while many described Google as a dominant force reshaping discovery.
Read at Digiday
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