{"id":115240,"date":"2026-07-22T18:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/115240\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:08:14","slug":"reddit-news-outlets-weigh-cutting-google-off-as-ai-summaries-kill-traffic-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/115240\/","title":{"rendered":"Reddit, news outlets weigh cutting Google off as AI summaries kill traffic: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reddit and a growing number of news publishers are reportedly mulling whether to cut off Google\u2019s access to their sites as the Big Tech giant\u2019s controversial AI search summaries siphon web traffic.<\/p>\n

Reddit, which previously inked a $60 million per year deal which permitted Google to use its online message boards to train AI models, has grown disillusioned with the search giant\u2019s tactics and is debating whether the agreement is worth it, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

USA Today, Politico, Reuters and The Economist are also reconsidering their ties to Google over its use of AI-generated \u201coverviews\u201d \u2013 which are placed at the top of search results instead of links to outside outlets in what critics have called an existential threat to online publishers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reddit is considering cutting ties despite having a content partnership with Google. SDF_QWE \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Social media community forum Reddit is considering cutting off Google\u2019s access to the site. Amanda Alamsyah \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to take a stand and say enough is enough,\u201d said USA Today CEO Mike Reed told the Journal.<\/p>\n

Google search traffic from US users to USA Today plummeted by nearly half over the 12 months ending in June 2026, according to data compiled by Semrush. Traffic plunged 23% for Politico and by more than 85% for Business Insider, the report found.<\/p>\n

USA Today \u2013 which is already suing Google for alleging operating a monopoly over digital advertising technology \u2013 is considering cutting off Google\u2019s access to its articles for AI training. That would also mean its articles would no longer appear in search results.<\/p>\n

Politico, which is owned by publishing giant Axel Springer, has discussed blocking Google and other bots from accessing its non-paywalled articles, according to the report. Reuters is also considering limits.<\/p>\n

USA Today could cut off Google\u2019s access to its articles. sharafmaksumov \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are certainly looking at the economic trade-offs between search and AI summaries,\u201d Reuters President\u00a0Paul Bascobert told the Journal.<\/p>\n

A Google spokesperson pushed back on the criticism, asserting that publishers are able to opt out of allowing their sites to be used for training its Gemini AI models without removing themselves from search.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle\u2019s AI Search features send billions of clicks to the web every week, meeting people\u2019s evolving preferences for how they want to find information while driving significant traffic to websites,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Google is accused of siphoning traffic from news publishers. Koshiro K \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cOur AI features highlight links to the web and help creators and publishers grow their audiences, and we offer clear controls for website owners to manage their content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Google has turned up the heat on news publishers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An example of AI Overview on a Google search page. Google<\/p>\n

In June, The Information reported that the company was pitching news publishers on a pilot program to have their sites featured in AI Overviews \u2013 but only if they agreed to allow sweeping access to their content for AI training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reddit and a growing number of news publishers are reportedly mulling whether to cut off Google\u2019s access to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24,25,309,46546,132,1429,46209,8796,20466,781],"class_list":["post-115240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-google","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-digital-publishing","tag-google","tag-google-ai","tag-newspapers","tag-reddit","tag-search-engines","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}