People Inc. won't block Google's AI crawlers despite traffic slide
Corrections
- 2026-11-07: The 21% share refers to Core Sessions, not total traffic. The Q2 investor presentation reports Google Search Core Sessions down 40% year over year and total Core Sessions down 22%. The answer and body now use the company’s metric.
- 2026-11-07: The reusable social summary still called the 40% decline Google traffic. It now names the measured unit, Google Search Core Sessions, matching the corrected article and Q2 source. Historical social posts are a separate correction surface.
What this answers
- Why won't publishers block Google's AI crawlers?
- People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel said the company still depends on Google search for audience reach, even though its Google Search Core Sessions fell 40% year-over-year and now makes up only 21% of Core Sessions, down from 25% the prior quarter.
People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel told Digiday the publisher won’t cut off Google’s AI crawlers, saying doing so “would turn off search” and the company isn’t ready to give that up. Google search now sends 21% of People Inc.’s Core Sessions, down from 25% last quarter, with core sessions off 22% year-over-year and Google Search Core Sessions specifically down 40%. Vogel said the goal is a “fair economic deal” for use of its content rather than a blocking stand, as the publisher leans on social, events, email, licensing and its D/Cipher tool to diversify away from search-driven sessions.
Why it matters: A major publisher choosing dependency over a blocking stand shows how thin the leverage is for content owners even as their own referral numbers collapse — leverage that talks like the UK CMA's opt-out order are meant to shore up.
The record: Google
Glossary: AI crawlers
Via Digiday Media ↗
Posted to the wire August 4, 2026. Updated November 7, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.