Google’s new artificial intelligence tool is disrupting the economic model of press publishers, who fear a drop in traffic and a challenge to their remuneration.
AI Overviews, Google’s new tool, is launched in France from this Wednesday. This feature provides a summary of answers created by Gemini, Google’s AI model, placed below the search bar, but above links to web pages. This positioning raises serious concerns among French press publishers, who fear that Internet users will be satisfied with these synthetic answers without clicking on the links of the information sites.
“This is a turning point for press publishers, because part of their ecosystem risks being profoundly disrupted,” underlines Marc Feuillée, president of the General Information Press Alliance and general manager of the Figaro group. Traffic generated by Google Search represents an important part for many sites and applications, even essential for some. The consequence will be to deprive them of part of their income.
A feared economic impact
Publishers’ fears are supported by alarming projections. “By 2026, publishers expect traffic from search engines to decrease by almost half (-43%) over the next three years,” estimated Reuters Institute in its “Digital News” report published in June. This prospect raises fears of a profound challenge to the economic model of the online press, largely dependent on the audience generated by search engines.
Since Google formalized the arrival of Reviews in France, sites are invited to carefully monitor audience indicators which could establish a direct link between this arrival and a drop in audience, which would result in a reduction in remuneration for related rights.
France was one of the last countries where Google had not yet deployed AI Overviews, while the functionality was extended to 200 countries at the end of May. This delay is explained by the particularity of negotiations with press publishers around neighboring rights.
After the sanction of 250 million euros imposed on it by the French Competition Authority in March 2024 for non-compliance with its commitments in the context of neighboring rights, Google took the time before offering them an update of their contract to take into consideration this new display of their content. Despite the opening of discussions, the American giant chose to launch its service without waiting for their outcome. “I would have liked prior agreement,” insists Marc Feuillée. “I regret this fait accompli situation and I worry about it.”
An “opt-out” contested by publishers
Google also introduced an “opt-out” for publishers to supposedly give a publisher the choice of whether or not to appear in these AI generative search features, without affecting its indexing or search results. This choice is not one, according to several editors. “If we exclude ourselves, we lose on all fronts,” underlines one of them.
Press publishers are not contesting the arrival of AI as a new technology, but rather the conditions in which it is taking place. “No one is against the implementation of AI, that’s a fact,” complains an editor. They point out that remuneration for related rights is essential to guarantee the production of quality information. “There is real concern about the future of the economic model of publishers,” underlines Marc Feuillée.
Since Google formalized the arrival of Overviews in France, publishers have been closely monitoring the evolution of their audience and wondering about the effective protection guaranteed to them by the commitments made by Google before the Competition Authority. “Are French publishers still protected by the commitments made by Google to the Competition Authority?”, however, wonders Marc Feuillée. The question of fair remuneration for content used by AI remains at the heart of concerns.
Towards new negotiations?
An agreement on rights related to copyright, covering more than 300 national, regional and local daily press titles in France, was renewed between Google and the press in January 2025. But the launch of Google’s AI tools in France is accompanied by commitments on the remuneration of publishers, while raising new concerns about the impact for the press.
“We need to speed up the discussions. An agreement is essential. The Alliance des Quotidiens has always demonstrated in the past its ability to reach agreements. It is in everyone’s interest,” adds Marc Feuillée. “If Google requests additional rights to use our content, it must find a way to conclude an agreement,” adds Louis Dreyfus.
