For years, People Inc., formerly known as Dotdash Meredith, has been preparing for Google search referral traffic to dwindle down to zero. Well, it looks like we’re about halfway there.
The company lost 50% of its Google search traffic over the last two years, as Google has embraced zero-click generative AI search, People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel told investors during parent company IAC’s Q4 earnings call on Wednesday.
He added that Google search accounted for about 70% of People Inc.’s traffic five years ago, but that percentage has dropped to about 30% today.
This drop-off in search referrals contributed to a 13% year-over-year reduction in People Inc.’s core sessions in Q4.
No big deal, though, because People Inc.’s digital revenue grew by 14% YOY in the same quarter, to a total of $355 million. It was the company’s highest digital growth rate in the last five quarters.
Going off-platform
Vogel attributed this revenue growth to People Inc.’s efforts to build its off-site presence, rather than relying on search to bring users to its network of sites, including Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Allrecipes and many other publications.
The company is courting off-site audiences via new touch points like People’s mobile app, which launched in April, as well as deeper integrations with social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok and news aggregation apps like Apple News.
“We’re going where the audiences are,” Vogel said.
As a result of these initiatives, People Inc.’s off-platform views have nearly doubled over the last two years and grew by 43% YOY in Q4.
In addition, non-session revenue grew by 37% YOY in Q4 to $137 million, and it now accounts for 38% of People Inc.’s total digital revenue.
Meanwhile, People Inc. also reported respectable 4% growth in revenue from on-site sessions for the quarter. Vogel attributed that growth to strong demand from performance marketers, who remain interested in People Inc.’s traditional site experience alongside its new off-site inventory.
In addition, People Inc.’s D/Cipher contextual targeting platform – which the company launched in May 2023 and opened up to non-People Inc. publishers last February – has “real momentum” with advertisers, Vogel said.
People Inc. counts D/Cipher revenue as part of its off-platform revenue, alongside social media, live events, email and content licensing. This off-platform business line now accounts for 25% of People Inc.’s performance marketing revenue, which totaled $101 million in Q4, up 17% YOY.
Even given this performance marketing growth, Vogel added that the digital ad market currently feels like a “six out of 10.” He noted health care and pharma have been strong demand verticals alongside tech and travel, but consumer packaged goods and food and beverage have been soft.
As far as opportunities for future growth go, opening up its contextual targeting platform to third-party publishers – a service dubbed D/Cipher+ – has allowed People Inc. to expand its targeting across CTV and the open web, Vogel said. Given these new revenue lines, Vogel predicts D/Cipher+ to contribute 2% to 3% growth in People Inc.’s overall revenue outlook for 2026.
“This is the model for our future,” Vogel said. “Strong growth from non-session-based revenue streams, led by our growth in off-platform audiences and D/Cipher, and executing against our session-based businesses while absorbing continued declines in referral traffic from Google and other platforms.”
Other investments
That digital business model will have to make up for some serious headwinds in other areas of IAC’s business portfolio.
While People Inc.’s digital revenues were strong in Q4, its overall revenue was down 2% YOY, due in part to a 23% YOY decrease in its print business.
And People Inc.’s digital business growth was an outlier for IAC, which saw its overall revenue dip by 10% YOY. IAC’s other brands include Care.com, The Daily Beast and Ask Media Group.
Given these trends, IAC is counting on People Inc. to be a revenue driver in 2026. The company projected People Inc.’s digital revenue and digital adjusted EBITDA to grow by mid to high single digits this year.
However, IAC Chair Barry Diller described this growth projection as “conservative” and said, “I would be very disappointed if People did not exceed that number.”
Speaking of Diller, he predictably was asked by an investor about IAC’s M&A aspirations given recent reporting that Diller inquired about purchasing CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Diller said in terms of M&A, he is looking for another target like MGM, which IAC became a lead investor in with a purchase of $1.3 billion of the company’s stock in 2020. IAC’s equity in MGM is now valued at $2.2 billion. However, Diller said he hasn’t found a potential acquisition that could reproduce the performance of the MGM investment, and such an acquisition does not seem to be on the horizon, he added.
As far as CNN specifically goes, Diller said he thinks he has a “less than 50/50” chance of getting the opportunity to purchase the news network. But he said he’s waiting to see how Warner Bros. Discovery’s negotiations with Netflix unfold, as well as Paramount Skydance’s attempts to circumvent Netflix’s proposed acquisition deal.
People Inc.’s Vogel also addressed another high-profile news story concerning the company: its antitrust lawsuit against Google, stemming from the DOJ ruling last year that Google operates a monopoly in the ad tech and ad server markets.
People Inc. projects that it will spend $15 million on Google litigation this year. But Vogel said the company is seeking hundreds of millions in damages.
“We look at this as an investment,” Vogel said regarding the Google lawsuit. “They’ve already been found to be in violation of these laws, so we’ll see where it lands.”
