Surviving the algorithm: News publishers walk the tightrope as Google ‘updates’ hit hard

It's not only the entry of chatbots or a drop in mobile phone sales and data consumption that has dwindled the mobile traffic of digital news publishers in India, but also modifications in the Google algorithm.

Publishers have been experiencing a steep decline in their web traffic, and they are placing the blame on the changes in the search engine's algorithms.

The loss of ad revenue for news websites has come at a time when macroeconomic factors such as the global recession and focus on profitability for startups have led to reduced spends from advertisers in 2022, resulting in a decline in revenue for publishers.  

Sriram Hebbar, VP & Business Head - Languages, Times Internet, says, “As per comscore, the web traffic of top 10 news publishers has declined by 14.7% on an average in the last 6 months. Google has released major Algo updates in 2022 which have impacted Search traffic across Publishers.” 

Top 10 news sites include vernacular online editions of the Times Group, Zee media, ABP group, Aaj Tak, New18, TV9, Jagran News, OneIndia and Asianet. 

The updates affected some English news websites as well as they slipped in rankings, however, some like Free Press Journal benefited. The new websites have been affected globally after the core updates, media reports say. 

“Whenever a core update from Google happens, it surely affects the organic traffic. For us, both updates of 2022 gave an upward surge in traffic. Another core update has happened on 21st Feb. We will have to wait and watch to understand its impact,” says Abhishek Karnani, Director of the Free Press Journal Group and Vice President of India chapter of the International  Advertising Association (IAA). 

Some publishers also feel that increasing crime coverage and decline in data consumption in the country have also negatively impacted the traffic to news websites. 

Both Google Discover and Search platforms are now possibly seeing a wide representation of varied small and niche players. This has impacted mainstream publishers significantly, Hebbar noted. 

According to Hebbar, the recall of ‘Instant Articles’ by Facebook in 2022 has also disrupted a major traffic source for Publishers. Instant Articles was designed to provide publishers with an engaging offering for the users, he noted. 

What were Google updates?

Google is the major source of traffic for major news websites. The tech major rolls out updates every once in a while. Some updates are small that can affect things like snippets but core updates can change traffic and bring the site ranking up or down.

“The twin major updates in 2022 have resulted in a massive change in the rankings of websites and content for most of the publishers. This shows how the tech giant can cause disruption in the news domain,” a news publisher said, requesting anonymity. 

Google claims that its algorithm aimed to prioritize search results “based on originality and authoritativeness of the source”. 

“Google’s technology analyzes news across the web to determine the top stories that will show up for everyone with the same language settings in a given country, based primarily on what publishers are writing about. Once these stories are identified, algorithms then select which specific content to surface and link to for each story, based on factors such as the prominence and freshness of the piece of content, and authoritativeness of the source,” the US-based tech firm said in a blog post. 

This means original news articles with expert insights and original photography will be ranked high in search results.

“In some news experiences, such as 'Full Coverage' in Google News, we show related results from a variety of sources around a specific topic or story. These results are not personalized. In providing additional context on a story, we sometimes include links to videos, subscribed sources, fact check articles, and other types of content. Algorithms determine which content to show, and in which order, based on a variety of signals such as authoritativeness, relevance, and freshness”, it further states. 

Publishers revising strategy  

Indian news publishers are finding ways to generate revenue by other means, rather than depending on Google and social media traffic alone.

Initiatives around Newsletters, App adoption and Subscription play are steps in the direction, says Hebber, adding, “Publishers can explore going beyond metros, and have a concerted effort to tap audiences in Tier 2-3 markets by strengthening Hyperlocal offerings. This could potentially attract new users and retail/local advertisers.”

He adds, “The digital publishing industry will need to connect deeply with existing audiences to drive stronger repeat usage and loyalty on platforms. Also, reduce dependency around Social Platforms and build stickiness on Own and Operate (O&O) platforms.”

Some media houses, like HT group and Indian Express, are launching language editions of their news websites for additional revenue.

Karnani noted, “Our Social Media strategy is to give informative news and soft features as users do not want negative/crime on that platform. Our focus has been to fight the fake news and we have been very consciously working on this. We are also aiming to promote more engagement on our App. FPJ is on almost all the major news platforms and aggregators.”