By Virginia Agar, Journalist, COO and Co-founder of OA Cloud

For years, those of us in journalism entered into a Faustian pact with algorithms. We learned to write for Google, to master keywords, and to trust that if we followed the rules of Mountain View, traffic —that digital oxygen— would flow into our newsrooms. But that pact has been broken.

Recent data from Chartbeat, published by Axios, is not just a statistic about decline; it is the death certificate of a model. Referral traffic from search engines has dropped by 60% for media outlets that relied on evergreen content strategies. The arrival of AI Overviews (AI-generated answers that sit at the top of search results) has turned Google into an answer machine, not a referral engine. If your added value was explaining “how to do something” or summarizing a generic trend, Google now does it for you, using your own words so the reader never reaches your site. But let’s focus on the positive side: journalism is regaining the value it should never have lost.

The shipwreck of “evergreen” content

It is a cruel paradox: evergreen content —the kind meant to deliver long-term value— is the first to be cannibalized. AI no longer needs to send you traffic to provide a recipe or health advice; it simply synthesizes it, and for now, there is no clear compensation.

This scenario has left large generalist and sports media in an extremely vulnerable position, as confirmed by reliable Google sources. In Discover, the tap is being turned off for mass-produced, repetitive content. The algorithm has developed a kind of fatigue toward noise: without a human angle, an authoritative voice, or a unique perspective, content becomes invisible. It was about time.

The resistance: what we see at OA Cloud

However, from my position as COO at OA Cloud, I have a privileged view of a different reality. While the market reflects a 60% drop, the local, regional, and niche media we work with have generally grown by 40% over the past year.

This reassures me not only as a technologist, but above all as a journalist. The success is not ours; it belongs to their content. While generic content is being overtaken by AI Overviews, the relevance of proximity survives. A local outlet covers realities that AI cannot “hallucinate” because they happen on the ground, not in its database. Today more than ever, specialization is the only real shield against disintermediation.

The prompt as an ally, never as an author

In this context, technology cannot be the enemy, but neither can it replace the journalist. At OA Cloud, we have developed a specialized prompt to support newsrooms. But let me be clear: our tool is a co-pilot, a structuring assistant, not a storyteller.

As a journalist, I know AI can help with research or drafting, but it lacks the most important thing: judgment. The 30% growth we see among our clients does not come from automating writing, but from using technology to free journalists from mechanical tasks. The goal is to bring reporters back to the field, to verify sources, and to practice their craft, while the system ensures that their value is readable within the new algorithmic landscape.

The myth of a new gold rush

Let’s not be misled by the 200% growth in traffic from chatbots. It still represents less than 1% of total traffic. Expecting AI to fix audience numbers is like expecting a drip to fill a dry well. The key is not to wait for AI to bring readers, but to use technology to strengthen media sovereignty.

Conclusion: from borrowed audience to owned community

The Chartbeat report is a warning: the era of “borrowed audience” from Google is over. We cannot put all our eggs in one basket. For those of us who value journalism, survival no longer depends on understanding the algorithm, but on rebuilding the conversation with readers.

At OA Cloud, we do more than manage infrastructure; we protect the space where journalism can breathe. In a world of automated answers and sterile summaries, technology must serve to build independence. Because in the end, what AI can never replicate is a media outlet’s commitment to its community.