When I was studying for a print journalism degree in the mid-1980s, newspapers were already in decline. It didn’t deter me from that line of work but it was worrisome.
At the time, broadcast and cable television news were lessening demand for newspapers, especially in major metropolitan areas. It turned out to be one of a series of crises to face the news industry over the years.
When I graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1984, PCs weren’t yet commonplace. The early days of the internet with AOL, Yahoo and the like would create the next crisis for newspapers. But publishers adapted and shifted their operations to the web. And as the internet evolved, they learned how to attract readers and game the Google algorithm using search engine optimization. At the same time, advertising shifted to the web.
The immediacy of the web has great advantages over the dead-tree editions of the news. I imagine that as more Baby Boomers die off so will the newspapers they grew up with.
But now digital publications, including legacy newspapers, are facing their next existential threat from generative artificial intelligence. Google searches now generate AI summaries of news and information requests. And that has led to fewer clicks on weblinks back to the source of the news and information. The result is fewer readers, less advertising revenue and fewer opportunities to sell subscription services.
One recent study found that U.K. publishers are seeing click-through rates cut by nearly 50% because of AI summaries.
Google disputes the results, calling the study inaccurate and based on flawed assumptions, according to Press Gazette.
Still, publishers in the U.S. and elsewhere are seeing a decline in traffic. Many readers might get all the information they’re looking for on a subject from an AI summary.
This has led to a corresponding loss in advertising revenue. News publishers have responded by cutting journalism jobs. The Press Gazette has been tracking the layoffs.
Some publishers are demanding payment for use of their content to create AI summaries. But that would probably only help the largest news companies that have the legal resources to fight Big Tech.
AI summaries will need to do a better job of sourcing in their responses to encourage a click-through for more information.
Online publishers already are preparing for a day called “Google Zero,” when Google stops sending traffic to websites.
Related articles:
Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Pew Research; July 22, 2025)
News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools (The Wall Street Journal; June 10, 2025)
Google search algorithm changes hurting small publishers (Tech-media-tainment; March 1, 2025)
Photo: Online news illustration (Mike Licht via Creative Commons)
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