Google AI Search Siphons Traffic as U.S. Legacy Media Mulls 'Cutting Off' Supply

According to The Wall Street Journal on the 22nd (Wednesday), sources revealed that Reddit, the online forum that supports Google's vast search results with content, is discussing cutting off the tech giant's access to its data for AI purposes.

An increasing number of online media companies are expressing dissatisfaction with Google, and Reddit is part of this growing wave. As AI transforms how people ask questions—siphoning search traffic and disrupting news media's revenue models—companies argue that Google is no longer a reliable source of visitors, especially since expanding its AI search features.

Publications such as USA Today, Politico, The Economist, People, and Reuters are evaluating how—or whether—they should continue collaborating with Google.

In 2024, Reddit reached an agreement worth $60 million annually, allowing Google to use its data to train AI models.

However, sources say Reddit's leadership is reevaluating the value of continuing to supply content to Google, amid declining external website clicks due to AI-generated answers. The two parties are currently negotiating the renewal of their expiring agreement.

"For certain types of news media, this is a matter of survival," said David Buttle, CEO of media consulting firm DJB Strategies. "They are considering more aggressive measures."

Data from Cloudflare shows that 'automated crawlers' now account for more than half of all web traffic. Some crawlers scrape news media content to train AI models, while others crawl sites to quickly answer user queries or resell content to other companies.

As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, efforts to block crawlers have become a whack-a-mole game.

Currently, news media still leave their doors open to Google's crawlers because these crawlers feed data to both Google's AI tools and its search function. Publishers typically cannot 'precisely block' one without cutting off the other.

USA Today is considering blocking Google's crawlers—a move that would mean its content appears neither in Google's AI summaries nor in traditional blue-linked search results.

Data from search analytics firm Semrush shows that from June 2025 to June 2026, USA Today's organic Google search traffic from U.S. users nearly halved.

"It's time to take a stand and say 'enough is enough,'" said Mike Reed, CEO of USA Today.

He emphasized that if the downward trend in search traffic continues, USA Today is prepared to cut off Google's access at any time and is already preparing for a future without revenue from USA Today traffic.

From June 2025 to June 2026, Politico's Google search traffic from U.S. users dropped 23%, CNN's decreased by about 25%, and Business Insider's decline exceeded 85%.