Forbes joins Google's News AI pilot as referral traffic drops 45%

Forbes has joined Google’s News AI pilot — the licensing program under which publishers grant Google expanded content rights for AI-driven discovery features, now covering more than 400 publications per Google’s Oct. 15 update — the wire reported Oct. 17. Forbes chief innovation officer Nina Gould told Digiday the paid deal’s main value isn’t traffic back: it’s citation data showing how Forbes content performs across Google’s AI surfaces, which the outlet feeds into its own product decisions, as Forbes’s year-over-year referral traffic from Google has fallen about 45%.