US news publishers say Google’s AI mode hurts traffic, revenue

The News/Media Alliance, a trade association for major United States news publishers, has expressed concerns regarding Google’s expanded AI Mode feature in its search engine.

The group claims that this feature is decreasing traffic and revenue for publishers.

Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance, voiced her opposition, stating, “Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue. Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return.”

She called for regulatory action to address these concerns.

🔗 Source: The Verge

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The deteriorating “traffic for content” bargain that built the web

Google’s AI Mode represents a critical breaking point in the implicit agreement that has powered digital publishing for decades.

Publishers have historically allowed Google to index their content in exchange for valuable search traffic, a bargain that drove 80% of visitors to sites like World History Encyclopedia 1.

This arrangement is now fundamentally changing, with traffic to top 500 publishers decreasing by 27% year-on-year, representing an average loss of 64 million visits per month 2.

The shift to “zero-click searches” through AI-generated answers means users increasingly get information without visiting publisher sites, causing some major news organizations to lose over 20% of their search referrals 2.

This transformation challenges the economic foundation of digital publishing, as reduced traffic directly translates to diminished advertising revenue, with industry estimates suggesting a potential $2 billion annual loss 3.

2️⃣ A familiar pattern: Google’s “opt-out or nothing” approach to publisher content

Google’s decision not to seek permission for using publisher content in AI features follows a consistent pattern in how the company approaches content rights.

During the GDPR implementation in 2018, Google similarly presented publishers with a “take it or leave it” approach, requiring them to obtain user consent for Google’s data processing while providing little transparency about how that data would be used 4.

In Germany’s copyright disputes, Google altered its approach to make participation in Google News an opt-in service, yet maintained the upper hand due to publishers’ traffic dependence 5.