Publisher Insider

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In today’s issue: where digital publisher revenue is moving, from Google’s first payments for AI answers to Facebook content monetization and paid link posts, and what we’d do about it before Q4.

Publisher money is moving in four directions

Wednesday’s issue covered the traffic side. The biggest news sites in America are losing readers to AI answers, and search referrals aren’t coming back to where they were. Most coverage stops there. We’d rather follow the money.

Google started paying for answers. Publishers in Google’s AI Contribution pilot see a monthly earnings figure in Search Console when their content contributes to answers in Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode. Citations and links in AI answers don’t qualify for payment. Google hasn’t published the formula, and the pilot is invite-only. Digiday reports the program has drawn more interest from small and mid-sized publishers than from large ones, and it reaches well beyond news.

Facebook put the link back, for a fee. Pages without a paid plan are being held to two link posts a month since Meta One for Business launched its subscription packages. The paid plans lift the cap. Meta’s own plan document for Advanced, at $34.99 a month, lists 8 Facebook link posts a month. For a page already earning from Content Monetization, a small monthly fee now buys a second income line: payouts on the post, plus traffic to your own site.

The AI audience split up. Comscore’s Q2 report shows ChatGPT’s share of AI prompt volume falling from 70% to 50% between January and June, while Gemini went from 17% to 30% and Claude from 2% to 11%. If your AI visibility check only looks at ChatGPT, you’re measuring half the market.

YouTube moved closer to the checkout. At Made On YouTube on Wednesday, it said more than 1.3 million creators use its Shopping affiliate program, merchandise volume has grown 13x in two years, and the program expands to 35 countries by year end.

Line those four up and the revenue is spreading across more surfaces, each paying for something different. If one channel carries your whole business, a single policy change on one platform hits all of your income at once.

Here’s what we’d do before Q4 if we ran a large page or a news site:

1. Run Facebook on two income lines. Plan the posting schedule around Content Monetization. If you have a site to send readers to, pick the Meta One plan whose link allowance covers your best link posts.

2. Start the Google Discover foundation now. Discover rewards a steady library built over months, and it’s the route into syndication partners like MSN later. Google’s September spam update began Thursday and runs for up to two weeks, so keep the site clean while you build.

3. Check your AI visibility in Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude. The content these assistants lean on is the content Google has started paying for.

If you earn well on one channel today, use this quarter to diversify your income streams. The founders call below is where we map it out with you.