Mirror publisher Reach is cutting 220 editorial jobs after Google's AI summaries slashed its referral traffic by nearly half — proof that when one corporation controls the gateway to information, working journalists are the ones who pay the price.
Reach, which owns the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express, and dozens of regional titles, is also shuttering three online-only local brands: KentLive, AberdeenLive, and GalwayBeo. About 60 new roles in subscriptions and video will be created, leaving a net loss of roughly 160 positions. But the signal is unmistakable: Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode now answer questions directly, and readers have no reason to click through to the outlets that actually did the reporting.
Chief content officer David Higgerson told staff the company is "in the middle of a mammoth shift in how audiences want content and journalism." According to The Guardian, Google traffic for Reach fell 46% year-on-year. In July, the company's half-year results showed a 55% drop in Google referrals and a 40% decrease in overall website audience, Press Gazette reported.
This is the second round of bloodletting. Last September, Reach put 600 roles at risk and cut more than 300 editorial jobs. The company's shares have cratered 90% over five years. Digital revenues fell nearly 1% to £128.9 million in the most recent fiscal year. Reach has 50,000 digital subscribers and hopes to hit 75,000 by year's end — a fraction of what's needed to replace the ad revenue Google is now swallowing whole.
Higgerson also pointed a finger at the "expansionist BBC," claiming the publicly funded broadcaster mirrors commercial local output up to 70% of the time. That's a fair grievance — a state-funded media giant duplicating private coverage isn't competition, it's crowd-out. But the BBC didn't kill 46% of Reach's Google traffic. Google did.
TNW noted that other publishers have seen significant drops in click-through rates since AI Overviews launched, and some have filed antitrust complaints. The Guardian's framing is telling: it described readers "turning to" AI summaries, as if this were organic consumer choice rather than Google unilaterally rewriting the deal — scraping publishers' work, summarizing it, and keeping the user on Google's own page. The traffic didn't walk away. It was intercepted.
Reach says it will now focus on "active engaged time" rather than page views and pivot toward original journalism, longer video, and subscriptions. That's the strategy of a company with no better option. When the platform that controls 90% of search decides your content belongs in a summary box with no link, you either find a new business model or you die.
The real question isn't whether Reach's executives are making the right pivot. It's who authorized Google to harvest the work of every newsroom on the internet and serve it back without compensation — and why the regulators who should answer that question are nowhere to be found.
