For about twenty years, publishers and Google had a simple deal. Publishers filled Google’s index with articles, and Google sent readers back to them. According to The Verge AI, that deal has fallen apart. Google’s AI search features, along with changes to how it ranks results, have made it much harder for any outlet to live on Google traffic alone.
This matters well beyond newsrooms. Anyone whose business depends on being found through search is in the same position.
📉 What the numbers show
Google rolled out AI Overviews in 2024. The feature puts an AI-written summary at the top of results, and the source links sit below it. Then in May 2025 came AI Mode, which replaces the usual results page with a chatbot-style interface. Each step moved publishers further from the reader.
The Verge AI pulls together data from several sources, and it points one way:
- Press Gazette found AI Overviews on almost a quarter of news-related searches in May 2024. By August, they were pushing media sites out of top spots they used to hold.
- The Wall Street Journal reported falling traffic at Business Insider, The Washington Post, HuffPost and the WSJ itself since 2022. Similarweb data showed the share of New York Times traffic coming from search dropping from 44% to 35.5% in three years.
- Digital Content Next said 19 of its members lost Google traffic between May and June 2025, with drops from 1% to 25%, Digiday reported.
- DMG Media, which owns the Daily Mail, told the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that click-through rates fell by up to 89% between June and July 2025.
- Pew Research found people are “less likely” to click through to other sites when they see an AI Overview.
🔍 Google’s version of events
Google tells a very different story. Search head Liz Reid said click volume stayed “relatively stable.” She also said AI search sends more clicks to sites “with forums, videos, podcasts, and posts” from users. Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice president of knowledge and information, told the BBC: “From our point of view, the web is thriving.”
What stands out is that both sides can be partly right. Total clicks can hold steady while they shift away from publishers and toward Reddit threads and YouTube videos. That’s still a big loss for anyone producing original reporting, even if the overall chart looks flat.
⚖️ Lawsuits haven’t changed much
Publishers have tried the courts, mostly without luck. US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed an antitrust case from Chegg and Penske Media, which owns Rolling Stone, Billboard and The Verge. He also rejected a proposed class action over AI Overviews brought by Arkansas newspapers.
Regulators have had more effect. After a UK order, Google rolled out a toggle that lets publishers opt out of AI Overviews and AI Mode without losing their place in regular search. But opting out doesn’t bring the traffic back. It just stops Google from summarizing your work.
🤝 Google starts paying, a bit
The pressure has produced some small concessions. Sources now show up more clearly in AI features, with hover pop-ups listing articles and inline links placed “higher up in responses more frequently.”
The bigger shift is money. Google says 400 publishers, including The Washington Post, CNN, Axios and the Financial Times, have joined its News AI pilot, which licenses content for new AI features. The Information and Digiday report that it’s also testing payments for content used in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
This fits a wider pattern. OpenAI, Perplexity and others have signed licensing deals with publishers, and those deals are slowly turning into the way AI companies pay for the content their answers depend on. Licensing doesn’t replace traffic, though. A check pays for content. A visitor can subscribe, see ads and come back next week.
🧭 What to do now
If your growth plan still treats Google as your main source of readers, it’s out of date. Here’s where I’d put effort:
- Own the relationship. Newsletters, subscriptions and communities don’t depend on a ranking algorithm. That’s why so many outlets are moving there.
- Track AI visibility separately. Look at how often you’re cited in AI Overviews and chatbot answers, not just your rank in blue links.
- Judge the opt-out carefully. Leaving AI features protects your content, but you also give up any citation traffic. Test it on part of your site before committing.
- Get ready to license. If Google’s payment program grows, publishers with clear rights and archives that are easy to use will be first in line.
Google will keep adjusting how it shows sources and pays for content. The open question is whether payments ever make up for the readers that stopped clicking. My bet is no. The publishers that do well will be the ones that stopped depending on Google for their audience. Full details are in The Verge AI’s original Stepback piece.