The Numbers Don't Lie: Publishers Are Losing 25% of Their Traffic to AI Platforms

New data reveals that ChatGPT news queries surged 212%, while publisher traffic dropped from 2.3 billion to 1.7 billion visits. See how AI is reshaping news consumption and what publishers must do now.

The writing was on the wall, but most publishers chose to ignore it. Now, with relatively crushing new data from SimilarWeb's comprehensive analysis, the reality is undeniable: AI platforms are systematically dismantling the traditional news ecosystem, and publishers are hemorrhaging traffic at an unprecedented rate.

If you're a publisher who's noticed declining organic traffic, dropping ad revenues, or diminishing reader engagement, you're not alone. The shift happening right now isn't a temporary blip; it's a fundamental restructuring of how consumers access and consume news. For publishers who fail to adapt quickly, the consequences will be catastrophic.

The Great Traffic Migration: Where Your Readers Are Going

ChatGPT News Queries Explode 212% While Google Searches Decline

The numbers are staggering. Between January 2024 and May 2025, news-related ChatGPT prompts and inquiries rose by 212%, while similar Google searches declined by 5%. The shift isn’t gradual; it’s a precipitous mass exodus from traditional search to conversational AI platforms.

A significant divergence started in late 2024, with ChatGPT usage accelerating in January 2025. While Google maintained its dominance for decades, ChatGPT has emerged as the preferred destination for users seeking contextual, real-time news insights.

The trend becomes even more alarming when you consider broader adoption patterns. ChatGPT's app users have more than doubled in the last six months compared to the same period the previous year. Web visitors have also continued to grow, increasing by 52%. The growth isn't just about early adopters; mainstream news consumers are fundamentally changing their information-seeking behavior.

The Stark Reality: 2.3 Billion Visits Lost to AI Platforms

The traffic migration isn't just about search queries; it's about actual visits to publisher websites. Organic traffic to news publishers has declined noticeably between May 2024 and May 2025, dropping from over 2.3 billion visits at its peak to under 1.7 billion. That's more than 600 million lost visits over just 12 months, representing millions in lost advertising and subscriber revenue across the industry.

For context, this represents a 25% decline in organic traffic to news sites during the same 12-month period that AI platforms experienced explosive growth. Your readers aren't just changing how they search; they're changing where they go for answers.

Zero-Click Searches: The Silent Killer of Publisher Revenue

From 56% to 69%: How AI Overviews Changed Everything

The most insidious threat to publisher revenue isn't direct competition; it's the elimination of clicks altogether. Since Google launched AI Overviews in May 2024, the share of zero-click news searches (i.e., the percentage of searches resulting in no clicks) has steadily increased, rising from 56% to nearly 69% by May 2025.

This means that more than two-thirds of news-related searches now result in users getting their answers directly on the search results page, without ever clicking through to publisher websites.

The Economics of Zero-Click: What This Means for Ad Revenue

For publishers whose business models depend on page views and ad impressions, this trend is devastating. When users get their news summaries directly from AI-powered search results, publishers lose not just the traffic, but the opportunity to monetize it through advertising, subscription conversions, and engagement metrics.

For news organizations, this shift marks a critical inflection and (possible) pivot-inducing point. That is, visibility and brand equity alone may no longer drive traffic; challenging long-standing assumptions about the value of ranking in search. The traditional SEO playbook, optimizing for keywords, building backlinks, and creating clickable headlines, becomes irrelevant when users never click through to your content.

User Behavior Is Permanently Shifting

From Browsing to Asking: The New News Consumption Model

Today's news consumers don't want to browse through multiple articles or navigate complex website structures. They want quick answers to very specific questions. As users shift from traditional search to tools like ChatGPT, they're seeking faster, more contextual answers to complex and evolving topics, such as market trends and policy developments.

This behavioral shift represents a fundamental change in how people consume information. Instead of scanning headlines and clicking through to articles, users are asking direct questions and expecting comprehensive, synthesized responses. They're treating AI platforms as their primary news source, not just a search tool.

Politics and Policy Drive ChatGPT Growth, Not Just Headlines

The type of content driving AI platform growth reveals another crucial insight about changing user behavior. Politics stand out on ChatGPT, outpacing all other categories in both long-term (year-over-year, YoY) and short-term (year-to-date, YTD) growth. Inflation, economy, and climate also show sustained upward momentum, reflecting user interest in real-world consequences of macroeconomic and policy shifts.

This contrasts with traditional go-to topics, such as the stock market, weather, and sports. These have tended to have a larger share of the news-related prompts (as shown above), but are seeing slower growth, suggesting a shift away from reactive information toward deeper, issue-driven engagement.

Users are increasingly seeking explanatory, contextual information rather than breaking news alerts. They want to understand the implications of events, not just know that they happened.

The Wake-Up Call: This Isn't a Temporary Trend

Why Traditional SEO Strategies Are Failing

The traditional publisher strategy of optimizing for search engines is becoming obsolete. When users get their answers directly from AI platforms, your carefully crafted SEO strategies; keyword optimization, meta descriptions, structured data; become irrelevant. This diversification signals a shift from reactive, event-based news consumption toward more intentional, explanatory use of generative AI.

Publishers who continue to focus solely on traditional SEO are fighting yesterday's battle while losing today's war for attention.

Most Publishers Are Already Left Behind

The most sobering reality is that this transformation is happening whether publishers participate or not. AI is changing how news is accessed while redefining distribution dynamics. Publishers must now adapt their strategies to stay visible and relevant across AI-powered platforms.

Publishers who resist this change or hope it will reverse course are setting themselves up for continued decline. The data shows that user behavior has fundamentally shifted, and that shift is accelerating, not slowing down.

The question isn't whether AI will continue to reshape news consumption; it's whether publishers will adapt quickly enough to survive and thrive in this new environment.

Part 2 Coming Soon, revealing which publishers are capitalizing on this crisis to generate millions in new revenue, and the strategies they're using to monetize AI traffic while maintaining editorial control. Don't miss the success stories that could transform your approach to the AI revolution.