- 01 The impact of AI search on SEO referral traffic
- 02 Publishers adopt new content strategies in the AI search era
- 03 News discovery moves beyond the publisher homepage
- 04 Publishers lean into social media and owned content to grow audiences
- 05 As news consumers gravitate to social media, publishers turn to creators
- 06 The impact of emerging content and audience strategies in the zero-click era
This State of the Industry report, sponsored by Arc XP, explores how publishers are adapting their audience acquisition, AI search and creator economy strategies as zero-click search becomes the norm.
The rise of AI-powered search is changing the way audiences discover and engage with content, and that fundamental shift is requiring publishers to adapt their audience strategies.
While traditional search engine optimization (SEO) was designed to drive readers to publisher websites through ranked links, today’s AI-powered search experiences increasingly provide answers directly within the search interface by synthesizing information from multiple sources, reducing the need for readers to click through to original source sites.
As of October 2025, one-third of the 15 billion searches conducted on Google triggered AI Overviews. And Google’s latest search overhaul saw its traditional search box — designed for typing a few keywords — replaced with an AI chat window that supports longer prompts and more complex questions.
“There’s no doubt all publishers are feeling the effects of AI on search traffic,” said Vineet Khosla, Chief Technology Officer at The Washington Post. “Chartbeat recently released data showing a 34% decline in Google Search traffic to publishers over the past year. This results in more pressure to improve our products and make them daily habit destinations, since we can’t rely on them for traffic as we have in the past.”
As AI search and zero-click experiences reduce referral traffic, publishers are investing in different audience acquisition and retention strategies ranging from creator partnerships to working with AI search companies.
“AI can put trusted content into new products, reach new audiences, integrate into professional workflows, and all of that has value,” said Emma O’Brian, svp and general manager at news aggregator Factiva, which is owned by publisher Dow Jones. “New consumption patterns can become new revenue streams. We’re in the early stages of that development, but seeing real green shoots there.”
In this new State of the Industry report, Digiday and Arc XP surveyed 85 publisher respondents to find out how they are adapting their audience strategies as search behavior, platform discovery, AI tools and creator-led media continue to evolve. More than half of the respondents (53%) to the Digiday and Arc XP survey said they are diversifying revenue streams amid shifts in consumer behavior.
“All publishers are looking for the areas of strength they already have that aren’t as exposed to the zero-click search threat, and for that core media business,” said Nina Gould, chief innovation officer at Forbes. “How can we pivot and figure out what we want to bet on, invest in and build.”
As more readers get their news and questions answered directly through AI-generated summaries on a search results page, publishers are feeling the effects of zero-click search.
More than three-quarters of survey respondents (76%) said that audiences have shifted toward summary-first consumption of content, while 61% said direct visits to publisher sites have decreased. Only 2% of publishers said they have not observed any meaningful changes in audience behavior due to AI search.
The overall effects of zero-click search were especially apparent when Digiday and Arc XP asked publishers what areas of their company have been impacted by AI search. Nearly half of survey respondents (47%) said that AI search has impacted referral traffic.
“It’s definitely hit our traffic and many of the businesses like impressions and affiliate marketing that underlie the traffic,” Forbes’ Gould said. “We’ve had a full year of a downward trend in search referral traffic, which we attribute to not just how Google is shifting its search experience, and keeping people in their ecosystem, but also to how other traditional search engines are losing market share to chat experiences like ChatGPT and Claude, which have far fewer clicks per reference than traditional search.”
For many publishers, Google’s AI Overviews and other AI-driven answer platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, change the value exchange that historically existed between traditional search engines and the open web. When platforms use publisher content to answer questions without sending readers to the source, publishers lose the traffic and monetization from that content.
“We no longer are in a world where we expect or rely on increasing visits to our sites to grow the business,” said Jonathan Roberts, chief innovation officer at People Inc. “It’s a lot of hard work to maintain that, but if that was the whole business, then we wouldn’t have grown because we are now very focused on all of these non-session-based revenue drivers, like events, emails, social programs and custom content. … We have to do both, but we’re putting a lot of effort into these new initiatives that do not rely on Google.”
The shift to AI search doesn’t necessarily mean publishers are losing all opportunities to monetize audience behavior. Sixty-nine percent of respondents to the Digiday and Arc XP survey said audiences are increasingly using AI search to research products. This suggests publishers may be able to connect AI-driven queries with reviews, recommendations and affiliate commerce.
Gould said publishers’ competition with AI search for ad dollars will initially be concentrated in performance marketing, particularly reviews and affiliate content. “The opportunity is how to work with our ad partners to create or optimize content to get marketing messages in chat searches, making sure they act in the same way as with SEO to control how their brand shows up in those experiences,” she said.
Publishers are leaning into new content strategies to capture readers’ attention and combat the effects of zero-click search on referral traffic. Nearly 9 out of 10 survey respondents (85%) said they are actively optimizing content for AI discovery or citation. Seventy-six percent of publishers said they have changed SEO or content structure because of AI search.
Gould said Forbes’ SEO and editorial teams are focused on the types of stories that perform best in AI search. “We want to understand how these models, agents and chat experiences interact with our content, what they value and how that shows up in these answer engines,” she said. “Then, use that information to make strategic and business decisions down the line.”
The Washington Post’s Khosla said the publisher is focused on the quality of its reporting amid the evolution of AI search. “Our journalism is written for readers, not for algorithms. We never pursued SEO for its own sake, and the shift to AI search hasn’t changed that, because we believe the quality of the journalism is what distinguishes us,” Khosla said. “We’re building opportunities for users and partners to work with The Washington Post in different ways.”
When Digiday and Arc XP asked publishers about the specific strategies they are using to grow their audiences amid the effects of zero-click search, several strategies emerged. More than half of survey respondents said they are working with AI search companies (62%). Furthermore, when asked if they are licensing or syndicating content to AI platforms, 76% of publisher respondents said yes.
Major publishers have partnered directly with AI platforms in the form of content licensing agreements in which publishers let AI companies use their content to train LLMs, often including paywalled content. In exchange, publishers get attribution for content surfaced by the AI chatbots or search platforms, as well as access to technology that publishers can use to build AI-powered products and features.
“Publishers have always balanced distribution and direct relationships,” said Factiva’s O’Brian Licensing gives publishers agency over some of those economics, and the idea of provenance over potential is becoming ever more essential.”
For instance, People Inc. has content deals with OpenAI, Meta AI and Microsoft. “OpenAI is a deep partnership where they have access to our content, and we work with them to help them build out new features,” Roberts said. “We’re often in their new launch engines because of that partnership, and licensing is part of that.”
Through its licensing agreement with Microsoft, People Inc. participates in the tech company’s “Publisher Content Marketplace” pilot program, which creates a pay-per-usage AI content marketplace to compensate publishers when AI-backed products use their content. People Inc. also permits a small number of trusted bots to crawl its site, according Roberts.
“There is an appetite and a value in content that is rapidly exploding and, at the moment, the people creating that content are not getting paid for that exploding demand,” Roberts said. “We like the future where there is an uncapped demand for content, but if that means that content isn’t being paid for, then we’re going to destroy the digital economy.”
Arc XP is making it easier for publishers to turn AI bot traffic into a revenue stream, thanks to a new integration with TollBit that helps publishers block scrapers and monetize access. As reported by Digiday, Arc XP customers will be able to use TollBit’s tools to monitor and control which bots are crawling their sites for content, as well as monetize the scraping they do allow by redirecting AI bots to TollBit’s paywall that charges for crawling.
Arc XP also offers a publisher-owned AI answer and reader-intent layer that answers readers’ questions using the publisher’s journalism, with links to original reporting. It helps publishers understand readers’ interests while keeping interactions on their own sites. Its new personalization engine, Arc XP Compass, combines those interests with editorial priorities to personalize home pages and section fronts, offering coverage summaries and connected story timelines while keeping editors in control.
News discovery is expanding beyond traditional search and publisher sites, with audiences increasingly relying on social media, news aggregators and AI-powered search to stay informed.
The majority of survey respondents (88%) said audiences use news aggregators or apps to stay informed. AI assistants and AI search are outpacing more traditional search engines for news consumption, 79% to 51%. And notably, three-quarters of publishers (75%) reported that audiences are consuming news via social media, including posts or short-form video content.
Traditional news aggregators have long been part of publishers’ distribution strategies. However, some newer AI-powered aggregators synthesize or reproduce publishers’ content without permission and without driving audiences back to the original source, adding to publishers’ traffic concerns.
“Aggregators have been a part of our content strategy for a while. … They’ve offered opportunities to get people outside of their ecosystem and into high-value actions for us,” Gould said. “People want to be able to look at news across multiple publishers, so we get it. We’re always having to balance what we can do of value within that separate ecosystem, and what we can bring back.”
That distinction gets at a broader question: whether aggregation represents a threat to publisher-audience relationships, or provides another channel through which relationships can develop.
Factiva’s O’Brian said as technology continues to make personalization easier, news aggregators offer an opportunity to build deeper audience relationships. “Everyone wants to know why a particular piece of news matters to them. The easier it becomes to translate news to something with relevance, the stickier that relationship with the user gets,” O’Brian said. “So, I see this as more of an evolution, but not a dead end in terms of the potential and the capabilities of these technologies for developing those relationships with customers.”
Publishers are making strides in meeting audiences where they consume content, with 67% of respondents increasing their social media presence in response to audiences’ shifting news consumption habits. More than a third (35%) are expanding social distribution of their content.
Gould said Forbes’ social media strategy mirrors the publisher’s approach to news aggregators. “You have to balance engaging your audience with native formats on that platform that feel authentic,” Gould said. “Then, find where the opportunities are to bring them back to your site to engage with content that they can’t get on a social platform.”
People Inc.’s Roberts said investing in social media platforms has increased audience reach. “Our strategy has always been to meet our consumers where they are, but investing into those first-class places to meet our consumers has been very successful,” Roberts said. “They’ve been growing 40% year over year in terms of the footprint. More people read our content than ever before, but they’re reading it in different places.”
More than half of publishers (52%) said they are investing in owned channels, such as newsletters, apps and podcasts, as a way to keep pace with changing consumer habits. Overall, publishers are leaning on channels that offer direct communication with readers.
For example, Forbes is using push notifications, SMS products and newsletters to build audiences. “Newsletters have always been great mechanisms to capture the loyal people who want more information and want it delivered in their inbox every day,” Gould said. “As we lose that big referral source from search, the more direct touchpoints that we have with our audience become an even bigger part of our strategy.”
In April 2025, People Inc. launched its People app so that readers wouldn’t have to visit the website to consume news. “You’d have it in your pocket,” Roberts explained. “The app has become a very direct destination, and that didn’t come out of thin air. That came out of observing the behavior and talking to our most loyal readers.”
Given the share of audiences consuming news on social media, more than one-quarter of publishers (26%) are increasing their creator or influencer partnerships. Creator relationships give publishers the opportunity to reach new audiences and to organically place their content in front of readers — unlocking new monetization opportunities.
The Washington Post launched a creator network in August 2025. Speaking at Digiday’s Publishing Summit in March 2026, Sara Goo, president of The Washington Post’s creator network, said that the publisher’s goal was to grow revenue by engaging different audiences to support the newsroom.
“There’s a clear opportunity to pair The Washington Post’s credibility with independent,
expert creators, combining their authenticity and reach with our legacy of trust,” Goo said. “Working with featured videos and creating social video franchises, while covering the creator economy itself, delivers reliable information to audiences where they’re already spending their time.”
When Digiday spoke with Goo for this report she described how creator partnerships function from a practical perspective. “We partner with independent expert creators to produce original content that’s both highly engaging and meets the standards of The Washington Post,” Goo said. “Our partnerships reach new audiences, help grow creators’ audiences, and take the headache out of brand safety questions for sponsors.”
“Creators are small businesses, so it’s important to respect their audience and be clear about the value you offer,” Goo added. “Be clear about the standards you want to set. Each creator is different in terms of experience and operation. There’s a lot that media companies and independent creators can teach and learn from each other to make great partnerships.”
In June 2026, Forbes also launched a creator network. Although it wasn’t created in response to the impact of zero-click search, Gould said the network has helped the publisher reach younger audiences.
“There’s also clearly been a trend with advertising spend to move towards creators,” Gould added. “Figuring out how our brand can sit alongside a creator brand and then partner with one of our ad partner brands is very appealing. It wasn’t directly a response to zero-click or search referral, other than business diversification is something we’ve focused on in earnest over the last five to six years.”
Embracing creator partnerships has paid off for proactive publishers. Among publisher respondents working with creators in some capacity, 62% said they are seeing faster audience growth, especially across emerging channels. More than half are seeing increased revenue (59%), new revenue opportunities (54%) and increased referral traffic (48%).
“Our creator business is meeting the shifts in media consumption as well as diversifying our business,” Goo said. “We look at where audiences increasingly get their information, at how social video storytelling is engaging the audiences and where brands need to be because of these changing habits. It’s clear that the answer is with creators. As a business, we understand the value in contributing to a popular media ecosystem with clear signals to audience and brands in trusted creator content.”
As publishers continue to navigate the rapidly changing media landscape, some audience engagement strategies have emerged as especially worthwhile.
When asked which strategy is performing best, 53% of publisher respondents said increasing social media presence is their top strategy — edging out working with AI search companies at 52% of respondents. Other engagement-oriented tactics that are proving worthwhile include building owned channels (44%) and creating community-driven experiences (38%).
With AI search and social media both reshaping how readers discover information, publishers are placing less emphasis on maximizing referral traffic and greater emphasis on building direct, diversified audience relationships.
Forbes’ Gould said building a core audience includes “taking audience loyalty seriously, understanding what is of value, and making sure we’re giving them more of that, in a sustained way.”
“When we create that lifetime relationship, that’s a person who doesn’t need search to get to us,” Gould said. “They come to us directly when they are looking for something or we’ve sent something of interest. They have trusted us to let us learn a little bit more about them.”
Ultimately, building direct relationships with audiences can help publishers reduce their dependence on AI search. And as the technology and consumer behaviors continue to evolve, publishers’ ability to adapt — and to build resilient audience strategies that extend beyond traditional search — will likely determine their long-term growth and success.
“We must look beyond today to understand how users will integrate AI into their daily lives and where news and information fit into that ecosystem,” said The Washington Post’s Khosla. “Historically, users turned to search to accomplish specific tasks or satisfy information needs. If AI can solve those problems directly, the search intermediary step will change.”
AI-powered search is fundamentally changing how audiences discover and consume content, weakening the referral model that publishers have relied on for years. As readers increasingly turn to AI-generated summaries, 76% of publishers surveyed said they are seeing more summary-first consumption, while 61% reported declines in direct visits.
Publishers are responding by diversifying how they reach and monetize audiences. Most are optimizing content for AI discovery, while 62% are working with AI search companies and 76% are licensing or syndicating content to AI platforms. At the same time, publishers are investing in social media, owned channels and creator partnerships to build audiences beyond search.
The shift also presents new opportunities. Among publishers working with creators, 59% reported increased revenue and 62% reported faster audience growth.
The emerging strategy is clear: publishers are moving from a reliance on search referrals toward diversified, direct audience relationships. Success will depend on meeting audiences wherever they consume information while building trusted destinations, sustainable revenue streams and greater control over how content is discovered and monetized.
About Arc XP
Arc XP is the media platform built inside a working media organization. Created at The Washington Post and hardened by the publishers who run it every day, Arc XP gives content-driven organizations an open platform their engineering teams can build on, workflows that get quality content published fast and the monetization tools their revenue teams need. Arc XP powers more than 3,000 sites worldwide, including The Irish Times, Libération, L’Express, Madsack, Graham Media Group and Sky News, and delivers billions of pageviews each month. Learn more at www.arcxp.com.
