killedbyllm.com
Jobs
Back to all entries

Web Publishers (Google AI Overviews)

Heavily Impacted

“Google answers the question itself now. Why would anyone click through?”

Media & ContentImpacted: 2024

Key Metric

Global publisher Google traffic down 33% in one year

What They Did

The open web publishing ecosystem -- news sites, blogs, reference sites, review sites, and content publishers of all sizes -- built their businesses on a fundamental assumption: Google sends traffic, publishers monetize it with ads. This model sustained millions of websites and hundreds of thousands of journalism, editorial, and content jobs for two decades.

How LLMs Killed Them

Google's AI Overviews, launched in 2024, answer user queries directly on the search results page using AI-generated summaries. Users no longer need to click through to the publisher's website to get their answer. Zero-click searches surged from 56% to 69% between May 2024 and May 2025. Click-through rates dropped 34-46% when AI summaries appear. Publishers called this an "extinction-level event." Simultaneously, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming alternative search tools that scrape and summarize publisher content without driving traffic back.

Timeline

  • May 2024: Google AI Overviews rolled out broadly in the U.S.
  • 2024-2025: AI Overviews expanded to appear on 13.14% of all queries (up from 6.49% in Jan 2025).
  • November 2024 - November 2025: Global publisher Google traffic dropped 33% (38% in the U.S.).
  • 2025: NPR described the situation as an "extinction-level event" for online publishers.
  • 2025: Media leaders surveyed by Reuters Institute expect traffic to decline 43% over the next 3 years.

By the Numbers

  • Google traffic to publishers down 33% globally in one year (38% in U.S.)
  • Zero-click searches rose from 56% to 69% (May 2024 to May 2025)
  • Click-through rates dropped 34-46% when AI Overviews appear
  • Organic CTR crashed 61% (from 1.76% to 0.61%) for queries with AI Overviews
  • Business Insider organic search traffic fell 55% (April 2022 to April 2025)
  • Travel blog The Planet D shut down after 90% traffic loss
  • Charleston Crafted (home blog) lost 70% traffic, 65% ad revenue
  • Media leaders expect 43% more traffic loss over next 3 years
  • One-fifth of publishers expect to lose over 75% of search traffic

Sources