AI search pushing an already weakened media industry to the brink

New Straits Times

16 hours ago

GENERATIVE artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT are cutting into traditional online search traffic, depriving news sites of visitors and impacting the advertising revenue they desperately need, in a crushing blow to an industry fighting for survival.
"The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers everywhere. No one is immune from the AI summaries storm gathering on the horizon," said Matt Karolian, vice-president of research and development at Boston Globe Media. "Publishers need to build their own shelters or risk being swept away."
While data remains limited, a recent Pew Research Centre study shows that AI-generated summaries now appearing regularly in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles. When AI summaries are present, users click on suggested links half as often compared with traditional searches.
This represents a devastating loss of visitors for online media sites that depend on traffic for advertising revenue and subscription conversions. According to Northeastern University Professor John Wihbey, these trends "will accelerate, and pretty soon, we will have an entirely different web".
The dominance of tech giants like Google and Meta had slashed online media advertising revenue, forcing publishers to pivot toward paid subscriptions. But Wihbey said that subscriptions also depend on traffic, and paying subscribers alone aren't sufficient to support major media organisations.
The Boston Globe group has begun seeing subscribers sign up through ChatGPT, offering a new touchpoint with potential readers, Karolian said. However, "these remain incredibly modest compared with other platforms, including even smaller search engines".
To survive what many see as an inevitable shift, media companies are increasingly adopting GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) — a technique that replaces traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This involves providing AI models with clearly labelled content, good structure, comprehensible text and strong presence on social networks and forums like Reddit that get crawled by AI companies.
But a fundamental question remains: "Should you allow OpenAI crawlers to crawl your website and your content?" asks Thomas Peham, CEO of optimisation startup OtterlyAI. Burned by aggressive data collection from major AI companies, many news publishers have chosen to fight back by blocking AI crawlers from accessing their content.
Some progress has been made on this front. Licensing agreements have emerged between major players, such as the New York Times and Amazon, Google and Associated Press, and Mistral and Agence France-Presse. But the issue is far from resolved, as major legal battles are underway, most notably the New York Times' suit against OpenAI and Microsoft.
Publishers face a dilemma: blocking AI crawlers protects their content but reduces exposure to potential new readers. Faced with this challenge, "media leaders are increasingly choosing to reopen access", Peham observed.
Yet even with open access, success isn't guaranteed. According to OtterlyAI data, media outlets represent just 29 per cent of citations offered by ChatGPT, trailing corporate websites at 36 per cent.
And while Google search has traditionally privileged sources recognised as reliable, "we don't see this with ChatGPT", Peham said.
The stakes extend beyond business models. According to the Reuters Institute's 2025 Digital News Report, about 15 per cent of people under 25 use generative AI to get their news. Given questions about AI sourcing and reliability, this trend risks confusing readers about information origins and credibility, much like social media did before it.
"At some point, someone has to do the reporting," Karolian said. "Without original journalism, none of these AI platforms would have anything to summarise."