The shift to digital platforms has not been kind to the independent media industry, which has had to scramble for a shrinking share of ad revenue and adapt to near-constant changes to Google’s algorithms. Yet as problematic as the move away from print media was, few could have imagined just how grim the media ecosystem would become once generative AI hit the scene.
Traffic to web media sites has nearly hit terminal velocity over the past year, as tech giants like Google funnel users away from traditional web search and into AI products that summarize journalism instead of encouraging users to actually read it. According to data compiled by Axios, the number of visits to the top 100 news sites has plummeted over the past five years, from a peak of over 70 million visitors a month in July of 2024 to just over 47 million in July of 2026.
For anybody concerned with the state of media, 2024 is an important year. It’s when Google first introduced its AI Overviews at the top of search results, functionally pushing legitimate news sites further down in order to prioritize engagement with the buzzy tech. Given that Google has a near-total monopoly on web search, the pivot toward AI is functionally strangling media publishers of all sizes — creating yet another existential crisis for the industry as a whole.
2024 was also the same year Meta rolled out its proprietary AI assistant, Axios notes, further drawing social media users away from news sites in favor of sterile chatbot summaries, which often gets important facts completely wrong.
