News Sites Collapse Under Google’s AI Takeover

News publishers are struggling to survive in the age of AI.

News websites are losing their traffic because of Google’s new AI tools such as AI Overviews and AI Mode tools, as reported in an extensive article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Google’s AI tools now provide answers to users without requiring them to follow links. The business model of publishers, which depends on website visits, becomes endangered when users avoid clicking links.

The Atlantic CEO, Nicholas Thompson, informed his staff that Google traffic will eventually reach zero levels in the future. He told WSJ, “Google is shifting from being a search engine to an answer engine. We have to develop new strategies.”

The News/Media Alliance, representing thousands of news outlets, recently accused Google of stripping publishers of both traffic and ad revenue.

Danielle Coffey, the group’s president said in a press release, “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, the definition of theft.

William Lewis, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, warned: “This is a serious threat to journalism that should not be underestimated,” as reported by WSJ.

Similar web data show that HuffPost, The Washington Post, and Business Insider experienced more than a 50% decline in their website traffic during the last three years, as reported by WSJ.

Business Insider reduced its workforce by 21% during the previous month. CEO Barbara Peng explained that the company made this move to maintain its ability to survive through “ extreme traffic drops outside of our control,”as reported by WSJ.

The New York Times experienced a 7.5% decrease in Google search traffic, which dropped from 44% to 36.5% since 2022, as noted by WSJ.

WSJ claims that it experienced an increase in search visitors, although they represented a decreasing portion of total website traffic.

In an interview with The Verge about publishers’ concerns, Google CEO Sundar Pichai insisted the company continues to drive traffic to websites. “No one sends traffic to the web in the way we do,” he said.