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Publishers say generative AI is cutting into their traffic. New research shows just why they’re right
People are turning to generative AI for different reasons than they did a year ago, according to new research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) that surveyed users across six countries.
“Last year, creating media — for example, creating an image or a summary — was the top use case,” RISJ fellow Felix M. Simon wrote for us this week. “This year, information-seeking has taken the lead, more than doubling from 11% to 24% weekly.”
People now use AI to “research topics, answer factual questions, and ask for advice. They are, in essence, increasingly using it for tasks that were once the primary domain of search engines and, by extension, news publishers.”
The shift away from creation and toward information-seeking has direct implications for publishers who rely on search traffic, and they notice the decline. More worrying than the “10 to 15% decline that we see coming from search referrals globally,” Matthew Monahan, president of The Washington Post’s Arc XP CMS for media companies, said at a Press Gazette conference this week, there’s a “drop in direct traffic from young audiences.”
Here in the U.S., 61% of respondents said they’d seen an AI-generated answer in search in the last week; 64% of respondents in the U.K. and 70% in Argentina said the same. (The numbers in France are lower because Google hasn’t rolled out AI Overviews, its AI-generated search summaries, there yet.)
“For publishers worried about declining referral traffic, our findings paint a worrying picture, in line with other recent findings in industry and academic research,” Simon writes. “Among those who say they have seen AI answers for their searches, only a third say they ‘always or often’ click through to the source links, while 28% say they ‘rarely or never’ do. This suggests a significant portion of user journeys may now end on the search results page.”
— Laura Hazard Owen
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“Some of the most shocking examples of ICE gone wild have come from Chicago residents who grabbed their phone and hit record just like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has been suggesting…the national media needs to step up its coverage of what’s happening here in Chicago. There has been some solid coverage but not nearly enough. This is ‘lead story, headline news, continuous coverage, send your reporters and lead anchors here to report on what’s happening’ time.”
“The company announced a so-called private placement seeking to raise up to $500 million for the newly created Los Angeles Times Media Group, which includes the newspaper as well as LA Times Studios and two of [owner Patrick Soon-Shiong]’s other businesses: the virtual production company NantStudios and the gaming and esports studio NantGames.”
“The move only gives the union the ability to call a strike; it does not guarantee that one will take place, and no date has been set. But it’s a significant effort on the part of the union to apply pressure to management after an unusually long [three-year] contract negotiations period.”
“Over recent years there is an increasing brazenness by the government and corporations to bend the law and regulatory frameworks in our country to direct censorship.”
“If you cut the cord, you miss news. This will be a way of getting news back in a way you can watch on a connected TV or your phone or pretty much every other digital device.”
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“On a business level, your problem with TikTok is this: Platforms exist to erode institutions like CBS News. You cannot solve your problems with improved distribution on TikTok. The things that work on television for 60-year-olds do not work on TikTok for 14-year-olds, first of all. But more importantly, TikTokers monetize their channels by directly integrating advertising and brands into their content, a strategy in immediate conflict with the values and ethics of a storied news organization like CBS News. Even if you somehow manage to crack TikTok’s algorithm, you still won’t make enough revenue to survive without trashing the very soul of the institution you’re purporting to save.”
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“The change to our Monday publication will help us focus our resources and time on the products readers are using the most.” Among those effected: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Omaha World-Herald, the Buffalo News, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“They allege that officers, dressed in ‘full combat gear, often masked, carrying weapons, bearing flash grenades and tear gas canisters…have repeatedly advanced upon those present at the scene who posed no imminent threat to law enforcement.’ The plaintiffs are a coalition of Chicago news associations and labor unions, along with the nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago.”
“Poynter president Neil Brown wrote in a note to staff, ‘Be it the economics or the ethics of the news business, Rick’s writing was accessible and his sources were deep. His approach to his work and to his colleagues was gracious and joyful.'”