Now Google is rolling out AI-generated summaries in its Discover feature. This feature is used as the primary news stream, curating a personalized feed, in the Google search application on iOS and Android devices. This is a great addition to the platform that will fundamentally improve the user experience by giving people fast, easy-to-consume content snippets. The AI is still being tested and piloted. Due to the rapid news cycle and constantly changing information, we haven’t been able to produce summaries for each news story covered in the app… yet!
The announcement is all the more welcome given the perilous state of the digital news landscape. Global search demand is down, with traffic down 15% YoY, per data shared by Similarweb. Sure enough, as The Economist recently pointed out, this is a growing trend. They argue that the falloff in search referral traffic deeply threatens web-based publishers who rely on organic search to reach their audiences.
The reliance on AI summaries will only make these problems worse. As the number of news searches that result in no click-throughs to news websites has surged from 56% in May 2024 to nearly 69% by May 2025, publishers are increasingly concerned about their ability to drive traffic to their content. Organic traffic, which hit a high of more than 2.3 billion visits in mid-2024, has collapsed since then to under 1.7 billion.
Pending the rollout of these features, Google has already taken a step in this direction with a new feature called Offerwall. This new option, available to publishers using Google Ad Manager, will help publishers test different ways to give users access to their content. With Offerwall, publishers are able to have access by implementing micropayments. They can monetize informing users by encouraging users to do other things, like take surveys, sign up for newsletters or watch ads.
Sarah, who’s been a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011, has been acutely aware of these changes in the publishing industry first hand. Prior to coming to TechCrunch, she was with ReadWriteWeb for over three years. She further honed her experience in information technology while working for Fortune 100 companies across various industries including banking, retail, and software. Her personal and professional experience in I.T. give her a rare perspective on the intersection of technology and media.
Referral traffic from platforms like ChatGPT back to news websites is on the rise. Unfortunately, this increase isn’t sufficient to counteract the steady increases of search traffic declines. Publishers are going through tectonic shifts. As the digital landscape continues to change, they need to change their tactics in order to remain relevant and accessible amid the shifting digital ecosystem.
The introduction of AI summaries could represent a significant turning point for how news content is consumed and shared on digital platforms. As Google improves its offerings, it is unclear what the long-term impact will be for publishers.