Headlines in Crisis: How AI Chatbots Are Diverting Traffic from News Outlets

The number of referral clicks from ChatGPT to news websites is on the rise, but this increase is insufficient to offset the decline in traditional traffic, as stated in a study by Similarweb.

Instead of the usual practice of searching on Google, users are increasingly opting to ask chatbot questions, resulting in a decrease in website traffic.

Since the launch of the Google AI Overviews summary feature in May 2024, the percentage of news searches that do not lead to visits has risen from 56% to 69% over the course of a year.

Organic traffic has dropped from over 2.3 billion visits in mid-2024 to under 1.7 billion. The number of news queries made through ChatGPT surged by 212% from January 2024 to May 2025.

News outlets are contending with new challenges as artificial intelligence continues to evolve, according to the company. Well-optimized SEO and visibility in Google search results are not yielding the high traffic levels they once did.

Meanwhile, the number of ChatGPT inquiries directed at news publishers is growing. It was less than 1 million from January to May 2024, but rose to 25 million in 2025.

The report also highlights the effectiveness of referral traffic across various sites. Reuters experienced the largest growth at 8.9%, followed by NY Post at 7.1%, and Business Insider at 6.5%. The New York Times, which is currently in litigation with OpenAI over alleged unauthorized use of its materials, is seeing less traffic, although it remains in the top ten with a growth of 3.1%.

Users of chatbots show the greatest interest in topics related to stocks, finance, and sports, with politics, economics, and weather gaining traction as well.

News organizations are facing a crisis as AI continues to «kill» their traffic, with limited solutions available. Some are resorting to paid subscriptions and other monetization strategies, while others are forced to downsize.

In a recent podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market.

«I genuinely believe there will be areas where certain jobs will disappear—possibly entire categories of professions. And while losing jobs may ultimately benefit society and the economy, it still causes pain,» he remarked.

Let’s remember that in July, Cloudflare launched a service called Pay per Crawl, aimed at creating a content marketplace for authors and AI companies.