The landscape of news consumption is rapidly changing, with AI-powered search results and AI assistants like ChatGPT playing a significant role in shaping the way users access news content. According to a report from digital market intelligence company Similarweb, referrals from ChatGPT to news publishers have experienced substantial growth. However, this increase is not enough to offset the decline in clicks resulting from users increasingly obtaining their news directly from AI sources.
Since the launch of Google's AI Overviews in May 2024, the number of news searches on the web that result in no click-throughs to news websites has grown from 56% to nearly 69% as of May 2025. Concurrently, organic traffic has seen a decline, dropping from over 2.3 billion visits at its peak in mid-2024 to under 1.7 billion. Meanwhile, news-related prompts in ChatGPT grew by 212% from January 2024 through May 2025.
For news publishers, the rapid adoption of AI is rewriting the rules of the game. Visibility in Google Search results and effective SEO practices may no longer hold the same value as they did in the past, as search rank is not translating into as much website traffic. While ChatGPT referrals to news publishers are growing, with a 25x increase from just under 1 million in January 2024 to more than 25 million in 2025, this growth is hardly enough to compensate for the massive decline in organic search traffic.
The report also highlights that some websites are faring better than others when it comes to AI referrals. Sites like Reuters, NY Post, and Business Insider have seen significant increases in ChatGPT referral traffic, while The New York Times, which has taken issue with OpenAI over alleged scraping of its content without permission, is experiencing far fewer ChatGPT referrals, with only a 3.1% increase.
A shift in the type of news-related prompts in ChatGPT is also observed, with topics like stocks, finance, and sports accounting for the majority of these prompts. However, Similarweb's report notes that other topics, such as politics, the economy, weather, and others, are also seeing growth. This may signal a move away from more "reactive information" and towards deeper "issue-driven engagement" via AI.
In addition to the growth in AI referrals, ChatGPT's website and app users have experienced significant adoption. Over the last six months, app users have more than doubled, while website visitors were up 52%. Similarweb now offers a service for brands and businesses that allows them to track how and where their brand shows up in GenAI tools like ChatGPT and how that compares to their competition.
As news publishers grapple with the crisis caused by AI's impact on their traffic, solutions are scarce. Google recently launched a service called Offerwall that allows publishers using Google Ad Manager to experiment with other means of monetization beyond traffic-dependent options like ads. With Offerwall, publishers can explore alternatives such as micropayments or asking users to sign up for newsletters to access their site's content. They can also customize the Offerwall screens with options of their own.
Other sites are experimenting with paywalls or other monetization methods, with some conducting mass layoffs or even shutting down their operations. In a recent interview with The NYT's Hard Fork podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the impact of AI on the job market, stating that there will be areas where some jobs go away, or perhaps entire job categories消失. He emphasized that any job loss, even if it benefits society and the economy as a whole, is extremely painful in the moment, and there will be real pain in many cases.