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• • • TUESDAY · OCT 13, 2026 • • •
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Publisher Insider
Industry news, strategies, and exclusive case studies from the world leader in publisher monetization.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY 
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In today’s issue: Google is building AI features for Discover, why Discover is still one of the strongest traffic sources you have, the content AI summaries can’t replace, and five stories moving the market. |
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Google is bringing AI into Discover. Be the source it can’t replace.
| THE DISCOVER FEED · WHERE IT’S HEADING |
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TODAY
Article links
A feed of stories, each one a click to a publisher.
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COMING
Links + AI features
Summaries and answers in the feed, next to the links.
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Google is hiring teams to build AI content for Discover. That’s got a lot of publishers nervous. We think it’s a reason to double down. Here’s why Discover is still one of the best traffic sources you have, the content AI can’t summarize, and what we’d do this week.
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Google is hiring engineers to generate and recommend AI content for Discover. Search Engine Journal reported the job listings on Oct 11. One Staff ML Engineer listing says the Discover Feed Recommendation team “leads by recommending AI-generated content (AIGC) to fulfill user interests.” The work includes agentic flows that create content for Discover and Notifications, with checks for factuality, freshness, coherence, and tone. A director-level design listing describes turning Discover into a “proactive, hyper-personalized concierge experience.”
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What’s coming to Discover |
Google is always changing things, and AI features are coming to the Discover feed. That’s our team’s view, and the listings back it up. Expect smart features that summarize information and answer questions right inside the feed, sitting alongside the article links.
Some of it is already live. Google launched AI previews on trending topics in Discover in the US, South Korea, and India in October 2025, and each preview links to content on the web. In August, Google let people tune Discover by describing what they want more or less of. In September, it started testing a “Dive deeper” button that opens a short topic overview with links to related stories.
The exact shape is still unclear. None of the listings gives a timeline, and none says how much of the feed AI content would fill. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. But the design listing itself asks the hire to keep “human voices and sources at the center,” and lists experience building value exchanges with creators and publishers. AI features need sources. We want you to be one of them.
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Why Discover is still one of the strongest sources out there |
Yes, traffic is down across the industry. Chartbeat’s 2026 Publisher Playbook, covered by SEJ, shows Discover referrals down 34.3% year over year across its network, July 2025 to July 2026. Google Search fell 40.2%. Chartbeat’s network leans toward news sites, so compare against your own July-to-July numbers.
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500M+
Discover daily active users, per Google’s own job listing
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34.3%
Discover’s YoY drop across Chartbeat’s network. Averages hide winners. Strategy is the difference.
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Here’s our read. An average decline across a network says little about what the right strategy can do on your own pages. Discover still reaches more than 500 million people a day, and it still sends them to publishers. Few sources on the open web can put a single story in front of that many people. That’s why securing your Discover traffic matters more now, and why growing it is still on the table. It’s the work our Google Discover consulting team does with publishers every week.
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The content AI can’t summarize |
An AI summary works when the answer is generic. Chartbeat’s playbook says it plainly: “generic, easily-summarized content is the most exposed,” and original reporting is harder for AI to replace. Our view: this is exactly the content Discover will keep pushing, because it’s what the AI features need to point to.
Content a summary can’t replace:
✓ Original reporting. You made the calls, you have the document, you broke it first.
✓ First-hand experience. You went, you tried it, you were there.
✓ Strong visuals and photo stories. A summary can’t show your photos.
✓ Personality and voice. Readers come back for the person behind the story.
✓ Opinion and analysis. A clear take with your name on it.
✓ Local. The school board, the new restaurant, the road closure.
✓ Live and developing stories. Updates as they happen, faster than a summary can catch up.
✓ Emotional and human stories. A summary flattens them. Your telling makes people feel it.
✓ How-it-feels reviews. What it was like to use, wear, drive, or eat. |
If a two-line summary would satisfy the reader, expect AI to handle it. If the reader has to see it, feel it, or hear it from you, that’s your Discover content.
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Be the source, and build the brand around it |
Start with your own data. Search Console already has a generative AI report for Discover. It counts impressions of links to your site in Discover’s AI features, and its Pages view lists the canonical URLs that supplied the information. Impressions are the only metric it reports, and sites with too few impressions may not see it. Your inclusion runs through the same Search generative AI control that covers AI Overviews and AI Mode, and excluding your site keeps it out of all of them. Want an outside read on yours? Our Google Discover Audit goes through your Search Console and site and hands you a prioritized plan.
Getting cited is half the job. The other half is making sure readers know your name. Chartbeat’s data shows where the growth is: dark social rose from 7.1% to 11.3% of network pageviews over two years, direct from 13.5% to 15.9%, and loyal readers held steady at about 15 billion pageviews a month. Brand, newsletters, and Facebook all feed that.
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What we’d do this week |
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Pull your Discover baseline
Get 12 months of Discover clicks by page from Search Console, and check the Discover generative AI report if you have it.
DO THIS → Tag your top 50 Discover pages: original, first-hand, visual, or rewrite.
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Shift output toward what AI can’t summarize
Rewrites of news everyone has are the easiest thing for a summary to replace.
DO THIS → Swap a share of this week’s rewrites for one original angle each: a call, a photo, a local detail, a take.
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Lead with your own visuals
Discover is a visual feed. Your own photos are something a summary can’t copy.
DO THIS → Give every Discover-bound story a large, original image, at least 1200px wide.
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Put a name and a voice on your best work
Readers follow people. Bylines, author pages, and a recognizable point of view build the brand.
DO THIS → Pick one writer per vertical to own a recurring column or series.
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Turn Discover readers into direct readers
A Discover visit is a first date. Direct traffic, newsletters, and Facebook are how you keep them.
DO THIS → Add a newsletter signup and a Facebook follow prompt to your top 20 Discover pages.
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Sources: Search Engine Journal, “Google hiring AI content for Discover” (Oct 11, 2026); Chartbeat 2026 Publisher Playbook, via Search Engine Journal; Google Discover job listings.
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THE PUBLISHER IN A BOX TAKE
AI features are coming to Discover. We’re confident of that. The exact shape isn’t clear yet, and nobody outside Google knows how much of the feed they’ll fill. What we do know: Discover still reaches more than 500 million people a day, and AI summaries need sources. The publishers who win will be the ones producing what a summary can’t replace: original reporting, first-hand experience, strong visuals, a real voice, local and live stories. Secure the Discover traffic you have, grow it with that content, and turn those readers into direct readers, newsletter subscribers, and Facebook followers. That’s how you get stronger as the feed changes.
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GOOGLE DISCOVER STRATEGY CALL · 1-ON-1 WITH OUR LEADERSHIP
Secure your Discover traffic. Then grow it.
AI features are coming to Discover, and the publishers who plan for it now will come out ahead. Book a strategy call with our Google Discover leadership. We’ll look at your Discover traffic with you and map the content strategy AI summaries can’t replace.
Our Discover work is about building structure: scalable infrastructure your own team runs in-house, at the highest margins and revenue levels possible. You keep 100% of the revenue.
WHAT WE BUILD WITH YOUR TEAM
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A full Discover traffic audit: where your clicks come from, what’s blocking distribution, and what to fix first |
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A content strategy AI can’t summarize: original, first-hand, visual stories built for the feed |
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Secure and grow your Discover traffic: headlines, imagery, technical health, and E-E-A-T signals |
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Highest-RPM monetization: ad setup tuned for Discover traffic on your own sites |
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Structure your team runs in-house: SOPs, workflows, and training so the system stays with you |
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BUILT ON THE SYSTEM WE RUN OURSELVES
300M+ FOLLOWERS UNDER MANAGEMENT · PUBLISHERS OF ALL SIZES
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We’ve done this for publishers of all sizes, with more than 300 million followers under management.
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LATEST MARKET NEWS |
THIS WEEK |
Moving the market right now.
5 stories from this week that matter if you run pages and sites.
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Oct 9: Google will pay Reach plc, the UK’s largest commercial publisher, for content used in AI Overviews, according to reports. Financial terms and duration weren’t disclosed. Google pays Reach →
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Oct 10: Instagram and Facebook are letting influencers earn commissions on tagged products again, per Business Insider. No rates or payout terms were disclosed, and Meta has shut similar programs before. Commissions are back →
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Oct 10: A new Meta white paper cites IPA data across 220 campaigns putting creators at a long-term ROI index of 151, the highest of any channel analysed, against 99 short term. Creator ROI index →
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Oct 12: Meta’s Creator Marketing Hub surfaces creators who already tagged a brand or asked to partner with it. Intent signals now matter as much as follower count in who brands find. Creator Marketing Hub →
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Oct 12: Meta shared guidance on keeping some ad placement control as it removes manual placement options, including placement value rules that raise or lower bids by placement. Placement controls →
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Top Performing Posts This Week
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POWERED BY
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Three standout posts from Oct 7–8 across NewsBomb’s 2,405-page index. Steal the format, not the post.
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POST 1 GRADE A+ SPORTS · OCT 7
Fabrizio Romano’s Messi farewell stats card hits 700,332 interactions
Takeaway: The moment everyone was talking about, packed into one clean stat card. Fast, visual, and easy to share.
700,332 INTERACTIONS · 15.7M VIEWS · IMAGE · VIEW POST
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POST 2 GRADE A+ ANIMALS · OCT 8
The Pet Collective’s “No more parade for me” dog Reel pulls 569,126 interactions
Takeaway: A credited fan clip plus a one-line caption in the dog’s voice. Top Reel in the feed this week.
569,126 INTERACTIONS · 6.1M VIEWS · REELS · VIEW POST
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POST 3 GRADE A+ SPORTS · OCT 7
ESPN FC’s ref-and-Messi moment lands 304,448 interactions
Takeaway: The small human detail inside the big story. That’s the angle other pages missed.
304,448 INTERACTIONS · 6.8M VIEWS · IMAGE · VIEW POST
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PAGES ON THE MOVE |
AVG INTERACTIONS / POST · WEEK OVER WEEK |
Greenpeace International
NATURE & ENVIRONMENT
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518 → 5,654
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▲ +991% |
Spirit Science
HEARTWARMING
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81 → 687
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▲ +748% |
Brainy Monkey
HEARTWARMING
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5,539 → 30,434
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▲ +449% |
The Weather Channel
WEATHER
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495 → 2,692
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▲ +444% |
Jonny Devaney
CREATOR
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1,650 → 8,577
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▲ +420% |
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Posts: Oct 7–8, politics excluded. Pages: the week to Oct 9 vs. the week before, pages with enough posts. NewsBomb movers as of Oct 12 (index settled through Oct 9).
NewsBomb catches these before they peak.
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