The owner of the Daily Mail – the best-selling newspaper in the UK – has called for stricter regulation for Google’s AI Overviews after reporting a huge 89% fall in traffic, according to the Telegraph.
In its response to a consultation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), DMG Media has urged regulators to act quickly to preserve its ability to monetise search referral traffic by showing ads to users.
Google has disrupted many web publishers’ business models since introducing AI Overviews in 2024, when it claimed the feature was designed to “take the work out of searching” by providing an AI-generated summary for a query directly at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
However, the significant increase in zero-click searches, where users can find all the information they’re looking for without clicking through to the original source (or sources) of the content, has raised serious concerns.
For news sites and content creators, the unspoken deal struck decades ago was simple: if they allowed Google to crawl and index their content, then they’d receive referral traffic in return.
Now, after years of creating, editing, updating, and uploading content based on that traffic model, many feel that AI Overviews scrape and bypass their work, breaking Google’s informal bargain.
What’s going wrong?
In its submission to the CMA, DMG Media revealed that its website click-through rate (CTR) dropped from 25.2% on regular desktop searches to just 2.8% when the user is shown an AI Overview, representing an 89% decrease in traffic.
For mobile searches, the drop was equally significant at 87%.
As a result, DMG Media has called on the competition watchdog to extend its proposed regulation for Google to:
- AI systems like Gemini
- Google News
- New “AI mode” interfaces with less visible links
A warning sign for the wider web
Crucially, if a British tabloid with millions of daily readers is feeling the impact of this drop in traffic, what must this decline in traffic mean for smaller, less-resourced sites?
From small publishers and independent blogs to local newsrooms and independent creators, organic online traffic can be one of their most relied upon sources of traffic.
For many of these companies, that don’t benefit from the same resources, investment, or domain authority as media behemoths like the Daily Mail, an 89% drop in traffic doesn’t mean fewer readers, it means no visibility, redundancies, and even site closures.
And according to Technology Magazine and the findings of multiple independent studies, AI Overviews can reduce site traffic anywhere between 30% and 70%, depending on search terms, suggesting that the Daily Mail’s experience is just the start of a wider trend.
Is the CMA doing enough?
The CMA is proposing to designate Google with strategic market status (SMS) and a consultation on its plans ended in July 2025.
A final decision is expected in October.
If designated as having SMS, it would mean Google holds “substantial and entrenched market power” and the CMA could impose behavioural rules that promote competition and protect consumers and businesses from potential harm.
Essentially, this would involve the implementation of strong measures, such as pro-competition interventions (PCIs) and conduct requirements (CRs) to address Google’s dominance in the search industry.
However, DMG Media’s concerns also relate to some of the newer AI-specific threats to site traffic and visibility, suggesting that the current CMA proposal should broaden its regulatory oversight beyond traditional search.
Google’s response to the CMA
As part of an oral argument made to the CMA regarding the watchdog’s investigation and proposed decision about whether Google has SMS in general search services, Google added that:
- It wants the investigation to be fair and not disadvantage it compared to competitors.
- It’s enthusiastic about UK regulation that’s “targeted, proportionate and predictable”.
- It agrees that AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of Google Search and within scope of any potential designation.
- It agrees with the CMA that Gemini AI assistant is a separate product to Search and shouldn’t be part of the investigation.
- It disagrees with the CMA’s claim that its default status (such as being pre-installed on devices) is a barrier to competition.
- It disagrees with the CMA’s claim that access to data is a major barrier for competitors.
Essentially, while Google is showing enthusiasm for UK regulation in principle, it’s also pushing back against some aspects of the CMA’s findings and resisting DMG Media’s call to expand oversight to include Google Gemini.
What needs to change?
As regulators: Expand oversight
The next step for regulators like the CMA is clear – to broaden oversight to include AI-driven interfaces, not just traditional search.
It can support a fairer online search environment by:
- Introducing pro-competition interventions to give businesses greater control over how their content is used
- Implementing conduct requirements to prevent Google from engaging in abusive behaviours
As publishers and creators: Adapt and diversify
To maintain online search visibility, it’s important to optimise your content for AI-generated results like Google’s AI Overviews, while also reducing reliance on Google by diversifying traffic sources.
To do this, we recommend:
- Creating unique and high-quality content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T)
- Focusing on structured data to improve search engine rankings and increase the likelihood of being mentioned in AI answers
- Building your own audience by creating exclusive and unique content and sharing in the form of video or written content via newsletters, social platforms, and podcasts
- Referring to other conversion metrics, such as Conversion Rate and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), rather than judging success on clicks alone
What does Aqueous think?
There’s no doubt that AI Overviews is changing how people access information online, but it’s also having a huge impact on who benefits from it.
Businesses cannot afford to either rely on, or wait for regulation to come to their rescue, they need to act now to diversify their marketing approaches to include a greater number of lead sources.
Ultimately, what this has shown is that no business can afford to rely on a single source of business, no matter how previously effective it may have been, and as we cannot predict the future, publishers must use all the resources available to them to either adapt or risk being left behind.
Turn to Aqueous for smarter AI optimisation and search diversification
To prevent your site from being sidelined by AI, talk to the expert team at Aqueous Digital today.
Our expert team specialises in AI optimisation and traffic diversification strategies, ensuring your content stays visible and effective even as search evolves.
Call today on: 0800 285 1424
Email your enquiry to: hello@aqueous-digital.co.uk
