Ben May of the Code Co published a piece on LinkedIn worth reading even if you’re not in the publishing game:
Publishers’ Side Doors No Longer Work: The Shift to AI-Driven Content
Here are his main points:
- Publishers have always used “side doors” to build audiences — from horoscope columns in the 1930s to SEO-optimised content
- Google Search referrals dropped 34% overall between Dec 2024–2025, but small publishers (under 10k daily views) took a 60% hit
- The cause isn’t purely AI overviews — algorithm updates and content quality penalties are also to blame, though the direction is the same either way
- The real problem is capacity: publishers now need more content in more places, while most newsrooms are stretched thinner than ever
- AI should be used as a force multiplier for routine work, freeing journalists to focus on the high-trust, human reporting no algorithm can replace
