Amy Watson
Research expert covering news and publishing
Loss of online news publisher traffic
News publishers are increasingly concerned about losing traffic, but is their anxiety simply symptomatic of an industry experiencing disruption and challenges, or do they have good reason to worry? From Facebook deprioritizing news content to public news fatigue and avoidance, many issues exist that threaten publishers’ ability to monetize their content and increase web traffic. Google AI Overviews also makes publishers uneasy, and data suggests that its impact could be severe.
Although social has been a less important traffic source than search in recent years, Facebook’s move away from news had a clear impact on the publishers who formerly relied on generating traffic from these channels, and the same applies to X. One publisher’s audience is not the same as another’s, and the decline in referral traffic from social platforms impacts all publishers differently – especially smaller outlets attempting to reach news and existing communities. Elsewhere, what is happening with search traffic?
Falling social referral traffic
Social media has long since established and ingrained itself as a key source of news – but things are changing. Although Facebook remains the leading social network used for news worldwide, engagement with the platform dropped steadily while others are becoming more relevant. Facebook and X now face competition from video-focused social platforms and have attempted to manage this by introducing more video content and reducing traffic to publishers to keep users engaged on their own platforms. The number of referrals to news websites from Facebook fell by almost 50 percent between the end of 2022 and 2023. A separate study revealed that Facebook referral traffic to news sites fell dramatically for several English-language publications (including smaller regional publishers) and out of the 25 sites included in the study, half received less than 10 percent of their page views from Facebook.Although social has been a less important traffic source than search in recent years, Facebook’s move away from news had a clear impact on the publishers who formerly relied on generating traffic from these channels, and the same applies to X. One publisher’s audience is not the same as another’s, and the decline in referral traffic from social platforms impacts all publishers differently – especially smaller outlets attempting to reach news and existing communities. Elsewhere, what is happening with search traffic?
Google AI Overviews: an unwelcome adversary?
Early summer 2024 saw Google announce the marriage of its search engine with its AI model, Gemini – with a key aim being to reduce the need for users to click on links in the SERPs. The result? Google AI Overviews, which will provide AI-generated summaries comprised of content from news sites and blogs. Whilst this sounds convenient for users in essence, publishers argue that this will be detrimental to their traffic. Data shows that a risk does exist: when an AI-written answer was provided by Google upon searching for news-related terms, the first search result slipped down the page by an average of 980 pixels (equivalent to one page scroll). Google’s public statements on its new product aim to assuage news publishers’ concerns. However, the often-tumultuous relationship between the news industry and Big Tech is unlikely to soften unless clear commitments are made to drive more traffic to the sites producing the news content. A reduction in web traffic will also hit ad revenue.The future of publishers’ traffic lies in closer consumer relationships
Times are tough for news publishers trying to keep hold of and attract new audiences. Some are tentatively agreeing to work with OpenAI, others are steadfastly avoiding this option. Whether or not publishers will explore the possibility of OpenAI training its products on their content, they are still likely to suffer traffic loss, with AI Overviews providing users the content they require without the need to click through to a publisher’s site. Until the long-term ramifications are clearer, publishers can focus on building direct relationships with their readers via subscriptions (particularly value-for-money bundles offering non-news content, too) and newsletters which land directly in the reader’s inbox. Convincing readers to invest in a subscription requires quality and distinctive content and brand identification. In such a competitive industry with building tension and fresh challenges, the time to focus on building a loyal and engaged audience is now.
