People Inc. won't block Google's AI crawlers despite traffic slide
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 traffic, down from 25% last quarter, with core sessions off 22% year-over-year and Google search traffic 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
Via Digiday Media ↗
Posted to the wire August 4, 2026.