Google’s Cost Cuts and Strained Relationship with News Publishers Over AI Overviews
Tech behemoth Google is set to discontinue its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times, following similar moves in the corporate media sector, according to sources. The decision reflects a broader push towards cost-cutting measures at the company, even as it reports robust financial performance.
In an effort to streamline operations, Google has been undertaking various cost-saving measures since early this year. This includes reducing managerial positions by 35% for teams with three or fewer members and offering voluntary exit programs across multiple divisions since January. Despite reporting strong Q2 earnings with $96.4 billion in revenue, the company’s finance chief Anat Ashkenazi hinted at continued cost-cutting efforts in late 2025.
The recent cost-reduction strategies may save Google a modest amount, but they come amidst growing tensions with news publishers. Data from Digital Content Next for August shows a 10% drop in median referral traffic from Google Search to publishers between May and June of this year, with non-news brands experiencing a steeper decline of 14%.
Major media outlets like CNN, Business Insider, and HuffPost have reported even more significant traffic declines (30%, 40%, and 40% respectively), according to SimilarWeb. Publishers attribute these declines largely to Google’s AI Overviews feature, which has reportedly reduced click-throughs to external websites by up to 33% since its launch.
Pew Research analyzed data from 900 U.S. adults in the spring, finding that six out of ten conducted at least one Google search in March 2025 that produced an AI-generated summary. Some critics liken Google’s cancellation of its Financial Times subscription to a plagiarist refusing to purchase the textbook they’re copying from.
At a Fortune event earlier this month, Neil Vogel, CEO of the largest digital and print publisher in the U.S., People Inc., accused Google of being a “bad actor” and using the same bot for its search engine as it does to support its AI features. In a scathing op-ed this summer, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint criticized Google’s AI overviews for creating a “zero-click” environment where all traffic ends at Google.
Google has yet to respond to a request for comment on these allegations.
