The Impact of AI on News Publisher Visits: A Study

Understanding AI Impact on News Publisher Visits

AI referrals played a minimal role, accounting for only 1.1% of visits to news publishers following AI-assisted conversations, as highlighted in a recent Scrunch study. The research, based on extensive tracking of searches, AI interactions, and website visits, revealed that the majority of publisher visits stemmed from direct navigation or traditional search methods.

Key Findings

An intriguing insight from the study indicated that readers were significantly more inclined, by 20.5 percentage points, to visit a news publisher within a week after engaging in a news-related AI conversation compared to non-news discussions. This observation, derived from individual browsing histories, emphasized a correlation between news-related AI interactions and sustained news consumption, rather than suggesting AI's creation of new demand.

• Around three-quarters of post-chat visits were a result of direct navigation.
• About 9% originated from traditional search, while the minuscule 1.1% were AI referrals.

Impact of AI Overviews on News Searches

The study pointed out that AI Overviews tended to accompany lower-click news searches, with searches featuring AI Overviews generating publisher clicks about 20% of the time, in contrast to roughly 30% for AI-absent searches. Furthermore, AI Overviews were prevalent in subjects like weather, market updates, and explanatory content, rather than sports queries, which had higher publisher click-through rates and seldom triggered AI Overviews.

• Comparing queries with and without an AI Overview revealed a marginal 2-percentage-point difference in publisher click rates.
• AI Overviews frequently appeared on news searches that historically yielded fewer publisher clicks.

Influence of Publishers in AI Recommendations

The study highlighted that significant publishers garnered the most follow-through visits, indicating a notable spike in visits to publishers mentioned by AI assistants but not initially prompted by users. This "routing signal," as described by Scrunch, led to a 10.6 percentage point increase in visits the next day and nearly 20 percentage points over the subsequent week, compared to similar publishers not referenced in AI responses.

• Major publishers were the primary recipients of follow-through visits, representing 97% of visitations post-AI interaction.
• In contrast, mid-sized publishers, although mentioned in about 17% of cases, experienced comparatively fewer resulting visits.

Significance and Recommendations

It is imperative to acknowledge AI's impact beyond solely measuring referral traffic. By incorporating insights from AI interactions into your visibility tracking, alongside conventional referral data, a more comprehensive understanding of how audiences discover brands can be achieved. This holistic approach can unveil crucial nuances in audience behavior and preferences.

Data Overview

The study, conducted between February and June 2026, analyzed millions of search queries, AI dialogues, and subsequent publisher visits from an opt-in panel. Notably, the analysis focused on page visits, excluding metrics such as subscriptions, revenue, or dwell time.

Explore the Full Study Surviving the clickpocalypse: What millions of search events say about AI eating the news

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