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As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall to boost publisher revenue

(techcrunch.com)
54 points elektor | 2 comments | 26 Jun 25 17:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.418s | source
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dpacmittal ◴[26 Jun 25 18:00 UTC] No.44389729[source]▶
Is it only me who feels its incredibly unfair for publishers, that not only did big tech trained their LLMs on free content authored by these publishers, but it's also killing their future revenue. It's like stealing from someone and then making sure they never make money again.
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1. rybosworld ◴[26 Jun 25 18:21 UTC] No.44389919[source]▶
In some sense I agree.

But I also think publishers have been complicit in providing a gradually worse experience, usually through SEO, for 10+ years.

This has drowned out what most people would call "good/original content" - think small, independent bloggers.

That big publishers might lose their shirts sounds like a good thing to me.

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2. billllll ◴[26 Jun 25 18:37 UTC] No.44390058[source]▶
At the end of the day, they're subject to the same market forces. If the big publishers lose their shirts, that means small bloggers don't have any chance of making it big. The same market forces that make big publishers worse are going to squeeze smaller outfits and writers.

And I know some people are going to say how writers and news "don't deserve" to make money because they haven't sacrificed enough upon the altar of tech, hustle, and Silicon Valley - I don't really care. I think newspapers and writing in general losing out is a blow to society.