Google’s AI overview may reduce traditional search clicks, but publishers still have meaningful growth opportunities in premium news and Google Discover, according to new data from Define Media Group.
- Organic search clicks have dropped 42% since AI Overview began to expand in Google Search, according to Define Media Group’s analysis of Google Search Console data across its portfolio of 64 sites.
Why do we care. AI-generated answers reshape search traffic. Evergreen content is losing clicks, while real-time newscasts and Discover distribution are emerging as strong traffic channels for publishers.
In numbers. Across Google Search, Discover, and Google News, traffic for top stories grew 103% from November 2024 to early 2026 in the company’s dataset. The loss was focused on information content and staying green:
- Organic search traffic reached 1.7 billion clicks per quarter from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024.
- After the introduction of AI Overviews, traffic dropped by 16% immediately and never recovered.
- As Google extended its AI Overview to May 2025, the decline accelerated.
- By Q4 2025, search traffic had dropped 42% from the pre-AI overview baseline.
Discover’s Role: Google Discover, which grew by 30% across the portfolio, is now the main growth engine for breaking news. Find yourself traffic gradually increasing as web search traffic decreases. For the first time in the dataset, Discover and web search now drive nearly equal traffic.
Why is this happening? AI overview comes up less in news questions than other topics. AI overview appeared in about 15% of news queries – about three times less than categories like health and science – according to Ahrefs data cited in the report.
- News questions often provoke i Top Stories carousel, which links directly to the publishers’ articles. Searches for major developing events, such as international conflicts, are often shown Top Stories instead of AI abbreviations.
- Define Media Group suggests that Google is likely to avoid AI-generated summaries of breaking news because events change quickly, accuracy rates are high, and generating systems can still spot things that aren’t there.
Report. TO CONTINUE! News Thrives in the Age of AI
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