Google AI Overviews

YouTube TV launches new skinny TV bundles; anti-ad Substack is testing ads; Google strikes new publisher licensing deals to feed its AI.

Newsweek launches an AI-powered homepage to offset traffic losses from AI search; OpenAI pulls an emergency pivot back to focusing on ChatGPT; and copycats dilute the impact of Spotify Wrapped.

DMG Media has a new social-focused agency services biz; AI search and AI slop sites are cannibalizing recipe sites; and a new TikTok trend blasts brands for not delivering free stuff they didn’t promise.

Traffic-starved publishers are hopeful that their long-undervalued audience data will fuel advertising’s automated future – if only they can finally wrest control of the industry narrative away from ad tech middlemen.

The fate of the open web will be decided on who controls the data that drives monetization and the AI that determines distribution. Google controls both, and proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly do not address this imbalance.

The Viant-Tubi integration offers new data insights; advertisers can buy sponsored product ads on Gopuff, thanks to TTD; and publishers continue to face traffic woes.

The layoffs reflect a strategic decision on People Inc.’s part to free up money to invest in growth areas, according to CEO Neil Vogel’s memo to employees.

ChatGPT and others continued the fragmentation of the search journey, which today hops between platforms and intents. The funnel no longer exists. Here’s how to pivot your brand’s SEO/GEO strategy.

Walmart’s CTV and DSP business shine in a meh Q2; plummeting search traffic is blowing up cost-per-click pricing; and TikTok annoys brands with its black box optimization.

Product review site HouseFresh bounced back from losing 91% of its Google traffic last year. Here’s how it’s pivoting in response to stiffer affiliate marketing competition and zero-click AI search.