AI-generated search overviews are another kick in the teeth for the industry

My heart breaks reading about the redundancies at Business Insider.

As many of you will have seen, the financial news outlet said it was struggling with falling traffic amid the increasing use of AI-generated search overviews.

“We’re at the start of a major shift in how people find and consume information, which is driving ongoing volatility in traffic and distribution for all publishers,” chief executive Barbara Peng wrote in a memo. “The impact on our industry has been profound, with many publications shuttering in recent years.”

Peng added that 70% of the news site’s business “has some degree of traffic sensitivity". 

"We must be structured to endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control,” she wrote, “so we’re reducing our overall company to a size where we can absorb that volatility.”

How will other publishers react to a drop in traffic? Fewer eyeballs ultimately leads to a slump in online advertising revenues, more redundancies amongst already trimmed down teams, and worse still, titles going under. It's another threat to the publishing business. 

There's hardly a day goes by when I'm not worried about the state of journalism or pondering my own future. I love my job, and I want to continue as a journalist but it's not sustainable. I've diversified to expand into media consultancy, workshops, power hours, courses, webinars, a journalist content network, and I rent out my flat when I'm not there, but it's still HARD. My income is falling. Publishers are cutting back, budgets diminishing, and freelancers are fighting for the small amount of work left. I think people would be shocked by what a freelance journalist earns (the average is about £27,000 a year). We haven't entered journalism for the high income; we just want financial security.

I don't know what the answer is. I don't want to exit the industry. I still get a kick out of seeing my name in print, or on the homepage of a national, of talking to people for a living, and writing stories. I'm looking into other alternative income streams, but my heart is in journalism, even if it's feeling even more demoralising as the years pass by.