AI is set to bring an end to the era of clickbait – and real news will be the winner.
The shift in search traffic from Google (as we used to know it) to AI summary answers has changed the game. No longer is volume of clicks driving referrals and revenue through the platform.
And Google isn’t the only major player anymore as ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Claude, Perplexity and many more are, successfully, courting our attention. They draw news from trusted sources and prioritise credibility.
Now the media has responded. Major outlets have confirmed a shift from driving page views to producing fewer, high-quality, human-interest stories that engage audiences.
Reach, one of the largest regional publishers and owner of The Mirror and Daily Express, has announced that it is no longer chasing page views. Instead, it will focus on original content and investment in video to drive subscriptions and revenue.
The Times has revealed it reduced its story count by 25 per cent and increased its global audience. The approach of publishing ‘fewer, better stories’ is credited with attracting more readers.
Press Gazette reports that magazine publisher Hearst is asking journalists to ‘start with why’ and reduce their story count.
So what does this mean for PR, journalism and news audiences?
Firstly, we can wave goodbye to the awful clickbait headlines.
‘Everyone is saying the same thing about X’
‘Celeb Y breaks their silence on Z’
I can’t imagine any of us will miss those.
As the clickbait begins to subside, we’re seeing more in-depth features appearing. Journalists are requesting news about real people who they can talk to directly. Weaker stories that PRs could once ‘get away with’ will no longer land.
AI, and specifically Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), is forcing both news and media relations to go back to basics. Find a real story, explore all angles, corroborate with experts and case studies, and you have a chance of cutting through.
There is a generation of journalists and PR practitioners who have grown up in the Google era, chasing volume of content. For those of us who entered either profession a couple of decades earlier, the arrival of Generative AI signals a welcome return to quality of output.
Of course, this brings its challenges, such as upskilling junior teams in PR, and creating more for journalists to do with limited resource. But if we’re no longer filtering through feeds flooded with clickbait, the real news can be found. And it can have an impact.
The role of news is to connect, engage, inform, empower and scrutinise. Campaigns can unite communities and authorities can be held to account. In the clickbait era, and with newsrooms shrinking, some of this power was lost. But we can earn it back.
As a profession, PR needs to do better and I’m all for that. We need to think like journalists – maybe employ a few (as we do at Liberty PR) – and work together to create meaningful content. Forget quick wins and focus on relationships.
AI’s impact on our lives is far from universally positive. For news, and for PR, its growing influence over search presents a moment of opportunity to do our best work for greater benefit. So, let’s put in the hard yards, resist the temptation to churn AI slop, and employ skilled professionals to create work we can be proud of.
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