{"id":321004,"date":"2026-02-28T01:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321004\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T01:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:27:11","slug":"conde-nast-ceo-says-ai-is-a-death-blow-to-google-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321004\/","title":{"rendered":"Cond\u00e9 Nast CEO says AI is a \u2018death blow\u2019 to Google search"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cond\u00e9 Nast, the publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker, is preparing for a future in which Google search is \u201cno longer a meaningful driver\u201d of its business, in a striking acknowledgment of how AI is upending the news industry.<\/p>\n

Google<\/a> accounted for a majority of visits to Cond\u00e9 Nast\u2019s websites just a few years ago but only about a quarter last year, according to chief executive Roger Lynch. He described Google\u2019s introduction of AI summaries as \u201canother sort of death blow\u201d in search traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assume very dramatic continued declines in search traffic, to the point where in a couple of years it\u2019s just not a meaningful driver of our traffic,\u201d Lynch told the FT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shift underscores how quickly the economics of digital publishing are changing as generative AI tools alter how people find information online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cond\u00e9 Nast<\/a> has struck licensing agreements with AI groups including OpenAI and Amazon, but has yet to reach a deal with Google. Lynch criticised what he described as a \u201cpernicious\u201d arrangement under which publishers must opt out of Google search in order to prevent their content from being scraped for AI-generated summaries.<\/p>\n

Long synonymous with glossy magazines, Cond\u00e9 Nast has spent much of the past several years overhauling its structure under Lynch, who was hired by the billionaire Newhouse family in 2019 to revive the publisher after years of losses. <\/p>\n

Lynch said Cond\u00e9 Nast increased revenue in 2025, despite search traffic declining more than expected, thanks to strong growth in subscriptions and other areas. <\/p>\n

Revenue in 2025 was similar to 2021 levels, but the company is \u201cfar more profitable now\u201d, he said. The\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported that 2021 revenue was nearly $2bn.\u00a0Gross margins have climbed about three percentage points in the past two to three years, according to Lynch.<\/p>\n

An internal memo viewed by the FT said both revenue and profit increased last year. Cond\u00e9 Nast is privately held and does not report financial results publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite its long history with print, the publisher now derived the majority of its revenue from digital operations, Lynch said, describing the past five years as a \u201cculture shift\u201d after a period of restructuring.<\/p>\n

While Cond\u00e9 Nast has undergone several rounds of lay-offs in recent years, Lynch says last year\u2019s profit growth was not driven by cost-cutting. \u201cOperating expenses were relatively flat,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After dominating the pre-internet era with culture-defining magazines that made celebrities out of editors such as Anna Wintour, Cond\u00e9 Nast has faced a tougher landscape as entertainment has moved online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lynch has spent the past several years merging Cond\u00e9 Nast\u2019s US and international operations. He has replaced some traditional editor-in-chief roles \u2014 including at US Vogue and Vanity Fair \u2014 with a \u201chead of editorial content\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other titles were folded into larger groups, such as Pitchfork, which became part of GQ, and Teen Vogue, whose content appears on Vogue.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a memo to staff on Friday, Lynch said the company would \u201cconcentrate resources\u201d on \u201careas where we have clear competitive advantages\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seven of Cond\u00e9 Nast\u2019s largest brands \u2014 Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler \u2014 now account for 85 per cent of the company\u2019s revenue. The New Yorker reached record revenue, profits and subscribers last year, according to Lynch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of that strategy, the group is selling LGBT+ title Them to Equalpride, the owner of Out, and exploring partnership or licensing models for Glamour and Self.<\/p>\n

Lynch also argued that Cond\u00e9 Nast\u2019s private ownership and lack of exposure to federal broadcast regulations insulated it from political pressures facing other US media groups, as US President Donald Trump has waged billion-dollar lawsuits against several major news organisations in his second term. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a really good journalist who wants to do your best work and not worry about what [FCC commissioner] Brendan Carr is going to say or the administration is going to do, the list is short,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at what\u2019s happening specifically here in the US, there are fewer and fewer journalistic organisations that are not being subject to political interference,\u201d Lynch said, adding that he views it as a \u201ccompetitive advantage\u201d for Cond\u00e9 Nast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Union<\/a><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s restructuring, however, has brought job cuts and unrest. The company cut about 5 per cent of staff in 2023 and has faced union protests over lay-offs, while senior editors have left posts at Vogue China and Vogue UK.<\/p>\n

Lynch said that after years of \u201creally hard slogging\u201d, the company was \u201ckind of past that part now\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard, it was years, it was painful. But now\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it\u2019s much more about investing in new ideas,\u201d he said, adding that the Newhouses were \u201cvery, very supportive\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cond\u00e9 Nast, the publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker, is preparing for a future in which Google…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-321004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}