Google AI Upends Nigerian News As Publishers Fight Back

In recent years, Nigerian newspapers and global affiliate publishers have found themselves at the sharp end of a digital revolution that shows no sign of slowing down. The culprit? Big Tech giants like Google and Meta, whose platforms—once reliable engines for traffic and revenue—are now being transformed by artificial intelligence into walled gardens where publishers increasingly struggle to survive. The situation, described by Segun Adediran, General Manager and CEO of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), as an "existential crisis," is forcing a reckoning with copyright, business models, and the very future of journalism.

For decades, newspapers in Nigeria and elsewhere relied on a simple formula: invest in quality reporting, attract readers, and draw in advertisers. Publishers put their money into newsrooms, and journalists worked tirelessly to hunt for stories and present them to the public. Advertising revenue was the sweetener that made it all worthwhile. But, as Adediran lamented in his January 19, 2026, commentary, "Big Tech, and now AI, came and spoiled it all." According to his analysis published in PUNCH, these technology behemoths have "created an existential crisis for news publishers by controlling the digital advertising ecosystem, hijacking traffic through search and social media, and utilizing content for AI training without compensation."

The numbers are stark. Big Tech companies, especially Google and Meta, now capture over 60 percent of all digital advertising revenue. Meanwhile, news organizations have seen traffic drops as steep as 90 percent in some cases, largely due to AI-generated summaries that siphon off readers before they ever reach the publisher's site. This shift is more than just a business headache—it's a fundamental threat to the sustainability of journalism as we know it.

The problem isn't unique to Nigeria. New research from Marfeel, a media analytics firm, reveals that Google Discover—a once-crucial source of referral traffic for publishers—has undergone a dramatic transformation. In the US, Brazil, and Mexico, 51 percent of the Discover feed now consists of AI-generated summaries designed to promote YouTube, Google's own video platform. A whopping 77 percent of clicks from these summaries go straight to YouTube, bypassing the original publishers altogether. As Xavi Beumala of Marfeel bluntly put it, "Google Discover is no longer a publisher-first surface. It’s becoming an AI platform with YouTube and X absorbing real estate that once went to newsrooms."

The impact is felt all the way down the feed. After position 20 in the Discover scroll, AI summaries make up over 80 percent of posts, pushing traditional publisher content further into obscurity. In the UK, Australia, and Canada, X (formerly Twitter) posts now dominate the lower positions, with X becoming the top traffic source on Google Discover in the UK after Google's December 2024 core algorithm update. Nicola Agius of Reach SEO and Discover noted this surge, highlighting how algorithmic changes have systematically shifted the playing field in favor of platform-owned or social content.

Google’s public messaging about these changes has emphasized making Discover "even easier to find, follow and engage with the content and creators users care about most." But as Press Gazette previously reported, this shift means that the distinction is no longer about which publishers get the most traffic, but whether publishers get any meaningful traffic at all. AI summaries often cite multiple publisher sources, but the primary call-to-action leads to YouTube or X, not the original reporting. As Beumala observed, "Discover is evolving from ‘traffic distributor’ to ‘engagement retention layer inside Google’s ecosystem.’"

For affiliate marketers and publishers who built their strategies around Google Discover, the implications are dire. The zero-click search phenomenon that gutted organic search traffic is now coming for content aggregation feeds as well. With Discover’s transformation, traffic that once flowed to publishers is being rerouted to Google’s own properties or major social platforms. The result? A two-tier system where big media brands with commercial partnerships might get compensated, but independent and affiliate publishers are left out in the cold.

These developments have legal and ethical ramifications, especially in Nigeria. The Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 provides robust protection for newspapers as "literary works," granting publishers exclusive rights to control reproduction, distribution, and publication. The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) is tasked with enforcement, and copyright protection extends for 70 years after the author’s death. Yet, as Adediran points out, "the media has ignored these rights and operated as a wholly public good. This is a mistake." He argues that it’s "economic robbery to use superior technology to appropriate what another business has invested in and assume you can go scot-free," a practice he says Big Tech and AI firms are currently engaging in.

Despite these protections, enforcement has lagged. Adediran’s frustration is palpable: "I am pained because media industries elsewhere are extracting their ‘pound of flesh’ from Big Tech for these infringements, yet Nigeria is being left behind." He points to South Africa, where the Competition Commission has launched inquiries into Big Tech’s impact and helped the local media sector recover some lost ground. In contrast, Nigerian publishers and the NCC have yet to take similarly decisive action.

Meanwhile, Google’s changes are not just squeezing out publisher content—they’re also raising new quality concerns. In recent months, fake news stories published by fraudulent websites have gained millions of clicks on Discover before being removed. Google acknowledged these problems and promised a "fix," but the broader solution seems to be reducing reliance on external publishers altogether, favoring YouTube and X content instead. This may address some quality issues but also sweeps up legitimate publishers in its wake, reducing their reach even further.

So what are publishers and affiliate marketers to do? Industry experts suggest a multi-pronged approach. First, audit your Discover traffic dependency to understand the scale of the risk. If a significant share of your audience comes from Discover, immediate steps are needed to diversify channels. Investing in direct audience relationships—email lists, social media followings, and brand communities—can provide more stable traffic sources. Developing video content, particularly for YouTube, is becoming strategically essential, given the platform’s growing dominance in Discover. And finally, publishers may need to rethink their relationship with distribution platforms, considering licensing or partnership models rather than relying solely on organic reach.

For Nigerian newspapers, the call to action is especially urgent. Adediran urges the NCC to "do its job effectively" and resist the "innovation imperialism" of Big Tech. "This is about copyright law, intellectual property, and fair business practices. Newspapers are not charity clubs," he writes. The stakes are high—not just for publishers, but for the future of independent journalism and public discourse.

As the digital landscape continues to shift, those who adapt quickly, diversify their strategies, and assert their rights will be best positioned to weather the storm. For everyone else, the way the cookie crumbles may be harsher than ever before.