Google AI pummeling news sites as traffic dips – Business News
Visits to main US news web sites have plummeted since Google rolled out its artificial intelligence search function final 12 months – with some plunging 40%, in response to troubling new information.
Of the highest 50 news domains, 37 suffered year-over-year traffic declines after the launch of Google’s AI Overviews final May, in response to ComparableWeb.
The drastic dropoff comes regardless of headline-grabbing occasions that included the assassination attempt on Donald Trump final summer season, his beautiful election victory over Kamala Harris a few months later and the turmoil over the new president’s tariff insurance policies.
“The data absolutely shows the new AI products Google has announced are affecting news publishers’ traffic,” Danielle Coffey, President and CEO of News/Media Alliance, advised The Post on Tuesday.
Google’s generative artificial intelligence capabilities proceed to have a devastating impression on publishers, in response to the newest information. SOPA Images/LightRocket by way of Getty Images
“On top of all the SEO changes that have decreased traffic recently in traditional search, this is certain to negatively impact our ability to invest in quality journalism,” added Coffey, whose nonprofit commerce affiliation represents more than 2,200 news organizations.
Forbes and HuffPost have been the toughest hit, every dropping 40% of their traffic, whereas DailyMail.com plunged 32% and CNN.com fell 28%, in response to ComparableWeb.
The Post and sister publication Wall Street Journal suffered declines of 27% and 17%, respectively, the information confirmed. Fox News.com fell 24%.
Fox News mother or father Fox Corp. and The Post mother or father News Corp share common possession.
ComScore, which makes use of a completely different methodology from ComparableWeb to trace traffic, discovered that NYPost Network — which incorporates nypost.com and affiliated properties such as Decider and Page Six — drew 433 million web page views in June 2024 earlier than falling to 381 million for May 2025, a loss of 12%.
CNN.com suffered one of the steepest drops, with traffic down 28% year-over-year to 311.7 million visits, in response to Similarweb. SOPA Images/LightRocket by way of Getty Images
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/24029631
Meanwhile, WSJ.com — half of News Corp-owned Dow Jones — and Fox News.com each posted slight will increase over the identical time body, one of the few publications to gain traffic, in response to ComScore.
Left-leaning rivals the New York Times and The Washington Post dipped 0.7% and 6%, respectively, ComScore discovered.
Publication that noticed the most important beneficial properties, in response to ComparableWeb, included MensJournal.com (+415%), CoolDown.com (+96%) and Indiatimes.com (+77%).
A Google spokesperson denied that AI push was responsible for the cratering traffic.
Google’s AI model, Gemini is powering instruments such as AI Mode, which negate the need for customers to go to exterior sites. Gado by way of Getty Images
“More than any other company, Google prioritizes sending traffic to the web, and we continue to send billions of clicks to websites every day,” the rep advised The Post on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen many inaccurate claims about traffic from Search, often based on speculative or incomplete information, questionable methodology, or data that predates AI Overviews. New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for businesses and content to be discovered.”
The company added that there are recognized limitations to ComparableWeb’s dataset because it solely seems to be at desktop and cellular web, not app exercise.
Google’s AI Overviews — automated summaries powered by its Gemini model — seem on the prime of outcomes pages and immediately reply person queries, typically preempting the need for customers to go to the source of the knowledge.
Since the rollout of AI Overviews, many publishers have reported steep declines in each traffic and click-through charges (CTR). According to a number of research, the average CTR for the highest natural end result on queries that set off AI Overviews plummeted from 7.3% in March 2024 to simply 2.6% by March 2025.
Google additionally not too long ago rolled out AI Mode — an superior search expertise that delivers detailed, conversational solutions to advanced queries.
Despite beforehand stating that AI Overviews wouldn’t seem for “hard news topics” resulting from considerations over freshness and factuality, an AIO box appeared atop search outcomes for “anne burrell death” shortly after the story broke.
A latest Google doc now states that AI Overviews will seem once they add worth and the system has high confidence within the response, although efforts are being made to exclude delicate or harmful topics.
The company claimed that total visits to the web and traffic from natural search have elevated year-over-year in mixture, and that AI Overviews are designed to boost the person expertise by surfacing more hyperlinks from a broader vary of sources.
Google added that publishers can expertise traffic fluctuations for a lot of causes unrelated to AI — together with seasonal demand, shifting person preferences and common algorithm updates.
