At an industry conference this week, People Inc. chief executive Neil Vogel said[1] Google is harming publishers by drawing on their content to fuel artificial intelligence features. He explained that Google once drove around 65 percent of traffic to his company’s sites, but that figure has now fallen to less than 30 percent. People Inc., which owns People, Food & Wine, and other well-known titles, still relies on Google for part of its audience, yet the decline highlights a shift in how information is consumed online.
AI crawlers and blocked access
Vogel argued that other AI firms can be blocked from scanning websites, forcing them to negotiate content deals. Google is different. Its single crawler collects data for both search and AI. Blocking it would also remove a publisher’s presence from search results, cutting off remaining referral traffic. That structure, according to Vogel, prevents publishers from having meaningful leverage.
Industry responses
Some media companies have started using Cloudflare technology to stop non-paying AI systems from accessing their material. Vogel said this tactic has brought large language model providers to the table, though no final agreements are in place. Cloudflare’s chief executive noted that referral traffic is already shrinking because AI-generated snippets answer user questions directly, leaving fewer reasons to click through to the original sources.
Legal disputes and past examples
The tension is mirrored in court cases. The New York Times is pursuing OpenAI over claims of unauthorized training on its work. Anthropic recently reached a $1.5 billion settlement with book publishers. Analysts see these developments as signs that licensing deals may become standard. Observers also point to YouTube’s history, where lawsuits over piracy led to a revenue-sharing model that now supports creators worldwide.
What lies ahead
Critics believe Google’s position makes it harder for publishers to survive in the long term. Research shows that major outlets have lost more than half their search traffic in recent years. Executives warn that this could accelerate if Google integrates AI responses more deeply into search. Some call this scenario “search engine zero,” a point where Google provides almost no traffic to external sites while retaining user attention within its own ecosystem.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.
Read next:
• AI Moderation Systems Clash on What Counts as Hate Speech[2]
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References
- ^ said (www.youtube.com)
- ^ AI Moderation Systems Clash on What Counts as Hate Speech (www.digitalinformationworld.com)
- ^ Survey Shows Trust in Influencers Falling, With Sharp Gaps Between Generations (www.digitalinformationworld.com)