wThe Financial Times chief executive suggested at a media conference this summer that rival publishers may consider a “NATO” alliance to strengthen negotiations with artificial intelligence companies.
However, John Slade's revelation that his website saw a “pretty sudden, sustained” decline in traffic from readers arriving via internet search engines from readers, quickly unveiled the serious nature of the threat posed by the AI revolution.
Queries entered on sites such as Google, which account for more than 90% of the search market, have been the center of online journalism since its inception, with news providers optimizing headlines and content to ensure top rankings and profitable clicks.
However, currently Google's AI overview is located at the top of the results page, summarizing the response and disabling the need to follow a link to content. Also, the recently launched AI mode tab that answers queries in chatbot format caused a terror of the future “Google Zero” where traffic referrals were dry.
“This is the biggest change to search I've seen in decades,” says a senior editorial tech executive. “Google has always felt like it's always there for publishers. Now, certain things in digital publishing are undergoing transformations that could completely change the landscape.”
Last week, the owner of Daily Mail revealed that the AI overview was in place by submitting Click-Through traffic to a competitive and market authorities' consultation on Google's search services.
DMG Media, including the Guardian Media Group and the Magazine Trade Body The Repionical Publishers Association (PPA), and other leading news organizations have urged The Competition Watchdog to make Google more transparent and provide publishers with traffic statistics as part of an investigation into the search domination of Tech Firm from AI overview and AI modes.
Publishers are already under financial pressure from surge in costs, lower advertising revenue, lower prints and widespread trends in readers, but Google claims they are forced to accept transactions, including how content is used in AI and AI modes, or “delete all search results.”
In addition to the threat to funding, there are concerns about the impact of AI on accuracy. Since previous iterations advised users to eat rocks and add glue to pizza, Google has improved the quality of its overview, but the issue of “hatography” in which AI presents false or manufactured information as facts remains similar to the issue of built-in bias when it determines how computers, not humans, mimic the source.
In January, Apple promised to update its AI feature that issued an overview of BBC News alerts with the company's logo engraved on the latest iPhone. The Alert falsely claimed that a man accused of killing a US insurance boss shot himself, claiming tennis star Rafael Nadal came out as gay.
In a blog post last month, Google's head of search, Liz Reid said that the introduction of AI during searches is “to drive more queries and quality clicks.”
“This data is in contrast to third-party reports that inaccurately suggest a dramatic reduction in total traffic,” she said. “[These reports] It is often based on flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the deployment of AI features during searches. ”
However, she also said that overall traffic to all websites is “relatively stable,” but “spacious” webs meant that users' trends are shifting traffic to different sites.
In recent years, Google Discover, which provides user articles and videos tailored based on past online activities, has replaced search with content as the main source of click-through.
However, David Buttle, founder of consultant DJB Strategy, says the services tied to the publisher's overall search transaction do not provide the quality traffic that most publishers need to drive their long-term strategy.
“Google Discover has zero product importance to Google,” he says. “As traffic from a reduced search, Google can focus more traffic on publishers. Publishers have no choice but to agree or lose organic search, and they also tend to reward ClickBaity type content.
Meanwhile, publishers are fighting a wider battle with AI companies trying to loot content to train large-scale language models.
The creative industry is intensively lobbying the government to prevent AI companies from using copyrighted work without permission due to proposed laws.
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Some publishers have attacked bilateral licensing agreements with AI companies such as FT, German media groups Axel Springer, Guardian and Nordic Publisher Schibsted, while others, such as the BBC, have taken action against AI companies by claiming copyright theft.
“It's two attacks on publishers, a sort of Pinker move,” says Chris Duncan, a senior executive at News UK and Bauer Media, who currently runs media consultant Seadelta. “Content is disappearing into AI products without serious rewards, but AI overviews are integrated into the product so there's no need to click and take effective money from both ends. It's an existential crisis.”
Publishers pursue multiple actions, from transactions and legal actions to regulatory lobbying, but have implemented AI tools in their newsrooms and created their own query answering tools. The Washington Post and FT have launched their own AI-powered chatbots, climate answers, and asking FTs.
Christoph Zimmer, chief product officer at Germany's Der Spiegel, says that while its traffic is currently stable, he expects referrals from all platforms to decline.
“This is a continuation of a long-standing trend,” he says. “But this has impacted brands that have not focused on direct relationships or subscription building in recent years, instead relying on platforms and general content reach.
“What has always been true remains true. Focusing on quality and different content, it's about taking on people, not just loops.”
Publication industry executives say the fight to make deals to train AI models to aggregate and summarise stories is being rapidly replaced by advances that models interpret live news.
“The initial focus was on licensing transactions for AI training to 'speak English', but that's not that important over time,” the executive says. “We're beginning to be providing news. To do this, we need accurate live sources. This is a potentially highly lucrative market that publishers are thinking of negotiating next.”
PPA CEO Saj Merali says there needs to be a fair balance between the technology-driven change in consumer digital habits and the fair value of reliable news.
“What appears to be not at the heart of this is something consumers need,” she says. “AI needs trustworthy content. There is a change in how consumers want to see information, but they have to have faith in what they are reading.
“The industry is very resilient through very large digital and technological changes, but it is very important to make sure there is a route to maintaining the model. At this time, the AI and the tech community have shown no indications to support publishers' revenue.”
