Publishers spent $113M on paid search as AI erodes traffic

Publishers in Similarweb’s Top 100 Media index spent an estimated $113 million on Google paid search in July 2026, up 41% year over year and 274% over three years, per Adweek. Forbes accounted for $72.2 million of that spend as its organic traffic fell 26.7% year over year; CNN and USA Today saw organic declines of 28.9% and 24.1% over the same period. Adweek notes the spending flows back to Google, whose AI-driven search products are shrinking the same publishers’ organic traffic for free.