For decades, the deal between Google and digital publishers was simple: search crawlers indexed online articles, and in return, websites received a steady stream of user traffic. Generative AI has broken that tacit agreement. As Google expands AI Overviews—the AI-generated summary boxes sitting right at the top of search results—users are getting instant answers without clicking through to the original sources. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, Reddit is actively weighing whether to pull the plug on Google’s access to its forum content.
The move follows a $60 million annual licensing deal signed in 2024 that allowed Alphabet to ingest Reddit posts to train its Gemini models. With that contract coming up for renewal, Reddit executives are questioning the upside of feeding their authentic human discussions into a system that ultimately cuts off their visitor traffic.
Surging AI summaries, plummeting reader clicks
Reddit isn’t fighting this battle alone, according to the report. A broad group of media outlets—including USA Today, Politico, Reuters, The Economist, and People Inc.—are reevaluating their long-standing reliance on Google. Data from search measurement firm Semrush highlights why publishers are alarmed. Between mid-2025 and mid-2026, organic search traffic from U.S. Google users fell significantly across major domains:
- USA Today: Dropped between 18% to almost 50% in specific segments.
- Politico: Dropped 20% to 23%..
- CNN and Business Insider: Each saw steep drops of 31% and 85% respectively.
Mike Reed, CEO of USA Today owner Gannett, made the company’s frustration clear, stating it is “time to take a stand.” The publisher is currently considering blocking Google’s web crawlers entirely—a drastic step that would pull its articles from AI summaries as well as traditional search results.
Web bots and the struggle for control
Complicating matters further, Cloudflare data indicates that automated bots now account for over 50% of total global web traffic. While some bots crawl pages to train AI platforms, others scrape material to answer user queries directly. This forces publishers into a constant game of whack-a-mole to protect their intellectual property. Google, for its part, maintains that its AI search features send billions of clicks to the web each week while giving creators controls to manage their presence.
A spokesperson noted that the company offers clear options for site owners to control how their material is indexed.
However, publishers argue that opting out of AI features often risks losing visibility in standard search listings altogether—though Google recently began testing independent opt-out controls in select markets like the UK.
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