Publishers fear AI summaries are hitting online traffic

When actress Sorcha Cusack left BBC drama Father Brown in January, she made headlines, including from Rich-owned newspapers including The Mirror and Daily Express.

But the story has not generated the kind of traction that Reach newspapers expected a year ago, or even at the start of the year.

Rich attributed this to AI Reviews (AIO), the AI ​​summary at the top of Google's results page.

Instead of clicking through to the article on the Reach newspaper website, readers were pleased with the AI ​​review.

The feature is a concern for newspapers and other media publishers, who have already seen much of their advertising revenue siphoned off to social media.

In a challenging market, readers coming through Google search are a valuable source of traffic.

“The main concern, supported by some anecdotal evidence, is that AI reviews will lead to fewer people clicking on the content behind them, which will have negative consequences for publishers,” says Dr Felix Simon, research fellow in AI and news at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

He notes that it's difficult to gauge the full impact of AI reviews without independent access to Google or publishers' internal click-through rate data.

DMG Media, owner of MailOnline, Metro and other titles, said AIO caused click-through rates to drop by as much as 89%. in the statement to the Competition and Markets Authority in July.

“This means publishers are not being fairly compensated for their work,” says David Higgerson, chief digital publisher at Reach.

“Publishers provide accurate, timely and trustworthy content that essentially feeds Google, and in return we get a click… which we can hopefully monetize into our subscription service.

“Now, thanks to Google Reviews, the need for someone to come to us in the first place is reduced, but at no financial benefit to the publisher.”

“This is another example of how the disseminator of information is not the creator of it, but receives all the financial rewards for it.”

There is also concern about Google new tool called AI Modewhich shows search results in a conversational style with far fewer links than traditional search.

“If Google goes full artificial intelligence mode and it becomes widespread… [will be] absolutely devastating for the industry,” says Mr Higgerson.

“We are definitely entering an era of fewer clicks and less referral traffic for publishers,” says Stuart Forrest, global director of digital SEO publishing at Bauer Media.

“Google has spent most of the last decade introducing more and more features into search results. [Search Engine Results Page]which reduces the need for consumers to visit the website. This is a problem we as an industry face.”

Mr Forrest says he has not noticed a drop in traffic to Bauer's sites, including its Grazia and Empire brands, due to the review feature. But that may change.

“I'm absolutely sure that over time, as consumers get used to these panels, this will no doubt become an issue. We act as if we have to respond to this threat.”

In its defense, a Google spokesperson said: “More than any other company, Google prioritizes sending traffic to the Internet, and we continue to send billions of clicks to websites every day.

In the August blog postGoogle's head of search, Liz Reid, said the number of clicks from Google search to websites was “relatively stable” compared with last year.

She also said that the number of quality clicks has improved slightly compared to last year: quality clicks are when the user does not immediately click on the link.

“Thanks to AI reviews, people are searching more and asking new questions that are often longer and more complex. Additionally, with the help of AI reviews, people see more links on a page than before. More queries and more links means more opportunities for websites to show up and get clicks,” she said in a blog post.

Some in the publishing industry are taking legal action to seek damages.

In July, a group of organizations including the Alliance of Independent Publishers, tech justice non-profit Foxglove and campaign group the Open Internet Movement filed a legal complaint with the UK Competition and Markets Authority, alleging that Google AI Reviews was using publishers' content in a way that was harming newspapers.

It asks the CMA to introduce interim measures to prevent Google publishers' content from being “misused” in AI-generated responses.

Meanwhile, publishers are trying to figure out how to promote content on AIO and hope to get a few clicks.

“Google doesn't give us any guidance on how to do this. We have to test and optimize the text in a way that does not undermine the main purpose of the content, which is to satisfy the reader's need for information,” explains Mr. Higgerson.

“We need to make sure we're being quoted and not our competitors,” says Mr Forrest. “Things like writing quality content… it’s amazing how many publishers just give up on that.”

Like other publishers, Reach is looking for other ways to drive traffic to its news platforms.

“We need to go and find out where the audience is in other places and build relationships with them there. We have millions of people who receive our WhatsApp alerts,” says Mr Higgerson.

“We created newsletters. The goal is to give people what they want when they're on our website and our brand, so the next time they search, we hope they don't turn to a third party to get to us.”