Google to Media: RIP

As ironic as it sounds: if Google dies, journalism dies with it.

Wait what?

Yes—Google, the same company that siphons billions from the open web.

That dominates discovery, outranks original reporting, and starves publishers of traffic.

That helped train AI models on journalistic content without paying a cent.

But here's the catch:

For all its flaws, Google is still one of the last lifelines left for digital journalism.

Search traffic props up ad revenue. AMP (as annoying as it was) brought mobile readers. Even crumbs from Google’s table are more than what most platforms give.

If Google collapses—or decides to cut off news entirely— who fills that gap? Meta? TikTok? ChatGPT? None of them want to fund journalism. Most are actively replacing it.

So we’re left with a bleak irony: The very platform that weakened the media ecosystem might also be the only thing keeping it on life support.

No easy answers. But if we care about independent reporting, we better start designing a future where journalism doesn't need to beg tech giants to survive.

But here's the catch:

For all its flaws, Google is still one of the last lifelines left for digital journalism. Search traffic props up ad revenue. AMP (as annoying as it was) brought mobile readers. Even crumbs from Google’s table are more than what most platforms give.

If Google collapses—or decides to cut off news entirely— who fills that gap? Meta? TikTok? ChatGPT? None of them want to fund journalism. Most are actively replacing it.

So we’re left with a bleak irony: The very platform that weakened the media ecosystem might also be the only thing keeping it on life support.

No easy answers. But if we care about independent reporting, we better start designing a future where journalism doesn't need to beg tech giants to survive.