How publishers are modeling – and mitigating – a future with significantly less Google search traffic

June 02, 2026

By Sara Guaglione Publishing execs aren’t convinced if — or when — Google Zero will happen, but they’re preparing for the worst anyway: a future where Google search stops driving traffic to their sites, and becomes a destination for information.

The threat of this zero-click future feels more real after Google’s last developer conference, where execs announced sweeping, AI-powered changes to search designed to keep users on the search page.

Publishers including Condé Nast and Time are strategizing for Google referral traffic tanking. Naturally, approaches vary depending on the publisher and how Google-dependent they are. Digiday spoke to six execs at large publishers about how they’re modeling for less Google traffic.Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV. …read more

Source:: Digiday