Google isn't kidding around about cost cutting, even slashing its FT subscription

Core Insights - Google is terminating its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times as part of broader cost-reduction efforts, despite reporting strong financial performance [1][2] - The company has been implementing significant cost cuts, including reducing the number of managers and offering voluntary exit programs across various divisions [2] - Google is facing strained relationships with news publishers, with referral traffic from Google Search to publishers declining by 10% from May to June 2025 [3] Cost Reduction Measures - Google is eliminating 35% of managers overseeing small teams and has initiated voluntary exit programs since January 2025 [2] - The finance chief indicated that cost-cutting measures would continue, even after reporting $96.4 billion in revenue for Q2 2025 [2] Impact on News Publishers - Major news outlets like CNN, Business Insider, and HuffPost have experienced traffic declines of 30% to 40% [4] - Publishers attribute these declines to Google's AI Overviews feature, which has reduced click-through rates to external websites from 56% to 69% since its launch [5] - A significant portion of users (60%) conducted Google searches that produced AI-generated summaries, contributing to the decline in traffic to external sites [5] Industry Reactions - The CEO of People Inc. criticized Google as a "bad actor," accusing it of using the same bot for both search engine crawling and AI features [6] - An op-ed by Digital Content Next's CEO described Google's AI overviews as creating a "zero-click" environment, where traffic does not lead to external sites [8]