The numbers cited are stark. A June 2025 Wall Street Journal report, drawing on Similarweb data, found search traffic to The New York Times fell from 44 percent to 35.5 percent over three years. Digiday reported that 19 members of the trade association Digital Content Next lost between 1 and 25 percent of Google traffic between May and June 2025. DMG Media, which owns the Daily Mail and Metro, told the UK's Competition and Markets Authority that click-through rates dropped by as much as 89 percent between June and July 2025, which it attributed to AI Overviews. Pew Research has found people are less likely to click links when an AI Overview appears.

Google tells a different story. Search head Liz Reid has said click volume remained "relatively stable" and that AI search sends more clicks to sites with forums, videos, podcasts and posts, while senior vice president Nick Fox told the BBC, "From our point of view, the web is thriving."

Publishers have pushed back in court, with limited success so far. Judge Amit Mehta dismissed an antitrust case from Chegg and Penske Media, and rejected a proposed class action over AI Overviews filed by Arkansas newspapers. The pressure has, however, coincided with changes: Google has made sources more prominent in AI Mode and AI Overviews, with hover pop-ups listing articles, and now places in-line links higher in responses more frequently.