Digital Publishers Squeezed by AI
The AI crash is here for online content, and that probably means you.
Gone are the times when publishing your own websites would make you a millionaire.
The digital content is getting harder by the day, and my staff tends to agree with it.
Now, the challenges will increase exponentially as generative AI rears its ugly head.
Even stalwarts that have been around for ages have failed to adapt, and the outcomes are grim.
Just take for example some well-known distributors such as Huffington Post and Washington Post.
Online traffic has been cut by half for these two legacy publishers in just 3 years, and the losses keep growing.
It’s a bloodbath out there, and the little guy is getting hit the hardest.
Generative AI chatbots are replacing Google searches, eliminating the need to click on blue links and tanking referrals to news sites. As a result, traffic that publishers relied on for years is plummeting.
Business Insider’s organic search traffic to its websites declined by 55% between April 2022 and April 2025.
Many big online publishers have said they expect organic traffic to 0 in a couple of years.
The hollowing out of digital content presents a vast problem for many industries, and jobs are being slashed at a record pace.
Google’s AI Overviews, which summarize search results at the top of the page, crashed traffic to features like vacation guides and health tips, as well as to product review sites.
Did the New York Times fare any better?
Traffic coming from organic search to the paper’s desktop and mobile websites slid to 36.5% in April 2025 from almost 44% three years earlier.
The threat of artificial intelligence became more real for Google after it was revealed that there was a drop in Google search traffic on the Safari web browser.
The search giant also said it elevates links to news sites and doesn’t necessarily show AI Overviews when users search for trending news. Queries for content included in older articles and lifestyle stories, however, may produce an overview.
Generative AI is now rewiring how the internet is used altogether.
This new trend supports the premise that businesses must pivot to an AI business or go bankrupt.
This is fast becoming the new reality for many digital publishers, and failure to evolve will solidify their demise.
Many online news outlets were already facing bleak trends such as declining public trust and fierce competition. With search traffic dwindling, they are putting an even greater emphasis on connecting directly with readers through businesses such as live conferences.
The Atlantic is working on building those reader relationships with an improved app, more issues of the print magazine, and an increased investment in events, Thompson said in a recent interview. The company has said subscriptions and advertising revenue are on the rise.
Investors still have a hard time locking down what software companies will benefit from AI.
There is even a chance that the entire software space will be overtaken by AI and be chucked into the graveyard of digital tech.
What still makes sense as of the middle of 2025 is to invest aggressively in the chip companies that are heart and center of the AI world, like Nvidia and AMD.
Anything else would be a risk, so why not invest risk-free with the best and brightest AI chips on the planet?
