Publishers are paying to buy back the search traffic they used to get free

Publishers in Similarweb's Top 100 media index spent an estimated $113 million on paid search in July 2026 alone, per Adweek data surfaced by Simon Owens, as organic referrals erode under zero-click search. Owens is skeptical of the pure pay-for-click model, calling it arbitrage that "gives the major platforms even more control over publishers' distribution," but endorses buying traffic when it converts readers into newsletter subscribers or event attendees.