Analysis ·
Traffic decline at French media outlets: after AI Overviews, is the worst yet to come?
Original title, in French: “Baisse de trafic des médias français : après les AI Overviews, le pire est-il à venir ?”
- Publication
- Journal du Net (France)
- Author
- Luciana Uchôa-Lefebvre
- Published on
- 14 October 2026 · read in the page structured data
Summary
Prisma Media measured the effect of Google's AI Overviews, launched in France on 22 July, on its traffic from Google Search. Comparing two 78-day periods before and after that date, and adjusting for seasonality, the publisher found a drop of 5% to 20% for economic news, TV and women's interest content, and of more than 40% for so-called evergreen content. Maël Montarou (Prisma Media) explains that the number of impressions remained stable but the click-through rate worsened. Other media outlets such as BFM TV (-28.2%), L'Equipe (-28.1%) or Le Monde (-19.6%) also show sharp traffic declines in September, according to the ACPM. Mathieu Chapon (Peak Ace) fears a rollout of AI summaries on Google Discover in France, which would worsen the situation for publishers even further.
Summary based on the full text of the article.
Read the article on Journal du Net →Figures cited
-
28.2 %
Drop in BFM TV's total traffic in September (including apps)
France, September, source: ACPM
« sur le trafic total applications comprises (source ACPM sur le mois de septembre), la baisse se chiffre à 28,2% »
Source: ACPM
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28.1 %
Drop in L'Equipe's total traffic in September
France, September, source: ACPM
« Mais L'Equipe (28,1%) ou Le Monde (19,6%) ne font pas mieux. »
Source: ACPM
-
19.6 %
Drop in Le Monde's total traffic in September
France, September, source: ACPM
« Mais L'Equipe (28,1%) ou Le Monde (19,6%) ne font pas mieux. »
Source: ACPM
-
— %
Drop in Google Search traffic for economic news, TV and women's interest content at Prisma Media
Prisma Media, comparison of two 78-day periods before/after 22 July
« Pour les contenus liés à l’actualité économique, TV ou féminine, les baisses de trafic ont varié de 5 à 20% sur Google Search »
Source: Prisma Media
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40 %
Drop in Google Search traffic for evergreen content at Prisma Media
Prisma Media, comparison of two 78-day periods before/after 22 July
« pour les contenus froids (de culture générale, orthographe, etc.), de plus de 40%. »
Source: Prisma Media
Classification
- Country
- France
- Company size
- All sizes
- Industries
- Media, communications, marketing
- Companies
- Heroiks (cited), Peak Ace (cited), L'Equipe (cited), Prisma Media (deploys AI), BFM TV (cited), Le Monde (cited), Google (supplier), ACPM (study author)
- Keywords
- ai overviews, google discover, media traffic, search visibility, seo, prisma media
Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Journal du Net and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.