If you’re old enough to remember the early 2010s, digital publishing seemed like such a simple two-step formula: Create content, drive traffic through Google search or Facebook referrals, monetize it all with ads, rinse and repeat. But the game has changed. A wave of nimble media startups — see The Bulwark, Ankler Media, Semafor — are showing you can build a business without search-based traffic. In fact, many are going out of their way to ensure that their models do not predict it.
Referrals from search have plummeted for publishers. With Google’s changing algorithms, AI summaries and in-search answers there are less outs clicking going out to sites. Publishers that once relied on SEO traffic are now hunting for new models. But those with an eye to the future of media aren’t just scrabbling — they’re changing the game. Search “is at the very, very bottom” of their growth strategy, the Bulwark’s editor says. They obsess about newsletters, subscriptions, events and direct audience relationships. That strategy enables them to escape the risks and uncertainty of algorithm changes.
These startups have a few things in common. Many started as one-person or small-team newsletters — on platforms like Substack, a sponsor of The Daily, which emerged two years ago with these creators in mind — and grew into podcasts, video series, live events, could it be memberships. Ankler Media, for example, provides insider Hollywood news at a price of around $169 per year and Semafor has raised tens of millions in outside investment as it targets an “elite” audience that will be very expensive to reach. They’re not fishing in the big but shallow pond of Google traffic — they’re creating smaller, deeper ponds. Serving niche audiences with value that’s difficult to replicate, they can do things like charge subscriptions, host branded events, make money from high-end advertising and create community.
What this shift actually means: Traffic is no longer equivalent in value — relationship. A reader who opens your email, pays you, comes when you call and trusts your brand is worth more than a casual user who clicked in via search once. For an advertiser 100 engaged members might be more valuable than 1,000 impulse visitors. For creators, owning the audience is about owning the upside rather than being enslaved to search algorithms or a social-media impulse.
Naturally, this model has its own pitfalls. If you’re running a subscription business, then you also need to wage war on churn, must always prove that you deliver value and have to invest in community. Some of those outlets are dealing with their own challenges, such as inboxes full of spam filters, a more limited reach and all logistical complexities that come with live events. Tiny teams also narrow the margin for error, and as media veteran Brian Morrissey notes, there is real personality-driven brand risk: The founder voice might work for initial traction but scaling beyond that without watering down its identity can difficult.
Yet it’s telling that so many of these companies are now profitable. They prove that you don’t need to rely on Google search hits to make it in media. And in a time when big publishers are cutting back, consolidation is growing and ad revenue is under pressure, leaner, direct-to-audience models at least seem like they could present a more sustainable path.
And for you as a reader, maker or subscriber, this movement has some lessons. If you are carving something out, start with value: Niche. Quality. Community. Refuse to chase the algorithm; build the audience. If you’re subscribing to or supporting media, know what you’re buying: direct access, special content, membership. And if you’re comparing old and new media companies, bear in mind that the business under the hood is what matters — traffic numbers alone don’t paint a full picture.
In short: Google traffic might still be relevant in some corners of the internet, but many of digital media’s newest players have moved beyond it as a baseline. They’ve gone from stalking clicks to courting customers — and they’re in the process of rewriting the rules on how media is made, grown and monetized in these digital times.
