Happy New Year! 🎇
With 2025 in the rearview, it’s easier to separate what sounded right from what actually worked. A lot of decisions across media and tech were made defensively, under pressure, and with limited data. Now we have outcomes.
One of the clearest came from how publishers tried to respond to AI. Blocking felt like a line in the sand. The results tell a different story.
Let’s get into it 👇
Driving the news: As generative AI tools spread across search, chat, and discovery, many news publishers made a defensive move. They blocked AI crawlers using robots.txt, hoping to stop their work from being scraped, summarized, and reused without compensation. The logic was straightforward. If AI systems were going to benefit from news content, publishers would at least slow the extraction.
New academic research shows that the strategy backfired. Large publishers that blocked AI crawlers saw traffic fall sharply after doing so.
The data shows an average decline of roughly 23 percent in total visits and about 14 percent in real human traffic compared with publishers that did not block. The drop persisted rather than correcting.
The move meant to protect publishers ended up shrinking their audience.
What’s interesting: Traffic is not a vanity metric for news organizations. It underpins advertising revenue, subscription funnels, and relevance. When publishers block AI crawlers, they are not just limiting training data. They are also reducing how often their reporting appears inside AI-powered discovery tools that increasingly shape how people find information. The impact was not evenly distributed:
Large publishers were hit hardest, likely because they depend more on broad distribution and indirect discovery. Smaller outlets saw mixed results.
But for the biggest players, blocking removed a layer of visibility at the same moment user behavior was shifting away from traditional browsing.
Publishers hoped to regain leverage. Instead, many lost reach.
The friction: Part of what made this decision stick was timing. News traffic stayed relatively stable through much of 2023. The real decline did not show up until late 2024, once AI features were more embedded in everyday consumer workflows. That lag made it easy to misread cause and effect.
Blocking also did not lead to widespread newsroom cuts. Editorial hiring held steady. Instead, publishers adjusted their products. More images. More interactive elements. More advertising and targeting technology. The pages got heavier. The audience still shrank.
The response added complexity without solving the core problem.
What this unlocks: The data points to an uncomfortable conclusion. AI systems are not just scrapers. They are intermediaries. Blocking them does not isolate your content. It removes you from a growing layer of discovery that users increasingly expect.
That does not mean publishers should give content away. But it does suggest that blunt technical blocking is a weak negotiating tool. Visibility now flows through systems publishers do not control, and opting out carries real cost.
Licensing, attribution, and structured access look more viable than denial.
The bigger picture: This pattern extends beyond publishing. Once behavior shifts, retreat rarely works. Audiences follow convenience. Distribution follows attention. Intermediaries keep changing, whether industries like it or not.
For everything else, see below 👇:
Entertainment
Hollywood Ended 2025 With Higher Ticket Sales Than Expected
A late-year slate helped cinemas post modest gains, even as the industry remains far below pre-pandemic norms. — (Brooks Barnes for The New York Times) — Link
Media
The Newsletter Business Reached a Fever Pitch in 2025
Writers, journalists, and celebrities rushed into subscriptions as inbox distribution kept proving durable. — (Alexandra Bruell for The Wall Street Journal) — Link
Meta’s Reels Revenue Is Finally Showing Up
Short-form video has turned from a strategic cost into a meaningful revenue driver for Meta. — (Sarah E. Needleman for The Wall Street Journal) — Link
TikTok’s Transformation Into a Shopping App Is Complete
Commerce is no longer an experiment on TikTok. It is now central to the product experience. — (Madeline Stone for Business Insider) — Link
Social Media Companies Tighten Rules Around Minors
Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are rolling out stricter youth protections amid rising regulatory pressure. — (Kalley Huang for Business Insider) — Link
AI
2026 Is the Year AI Has to Make Real Money
The next phase of the AI boom will be defined by revenue, not technical demos. — (Ina Fried for Axios) — Link
Why Everyone Is Getting Tired of Sexy Chatbots
Personality-driven AI tools are losing appeal as usefulness and trust limits become clearer. — (Reece Rogers for Wired) — Link
Gen Z
What Gen Z Is Actually Into in 2026
From shopping habits to aesthetics, Gen Z tastes continue to resist easy categorization. — (Katie Notopoulos for Business Insider) — Link
AI
Most Americans Didn’t Read Many Books Last Year
A small group of heavy readers continues to account for the majority of books read in the U.S. — (Taylor Orth for YouGov America) — Link
Book Sales in 2025 Were Driven by Familiar Titles
Backlist books outperformed new releases, reinforcing readers’ preference for known quantities. — (Elizabeth A. Harris for The New York Times) — Link
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