People Inc. web sessions fell 26% in Q3 on weaker Google traffic. Licensing rose 49%

People Inc. web sessions fell 26% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, the publisher said on its earnings call on 3 November. Chief executive Neil Vogel said the drop came mainly from fewer visits referred by Google.

People Inc. publishes brands such as People and Southern Living. Its core sites drew 1.6 billion sessions in the quarter. In the second quarter the decline was 22%. AdExchanger reported that this was the company’s biggest single-quarter fall so far.

Google referrals to People Inc. are down 70% in two years

According to AdExchanger, referral traffic from Google search to People Inc. has fallen by 70% over the past two years. Chief financial officer Tim Quinn said AI Overviews, the AI summaries at the top of Google results, now appear on more than 90% of the searches the company tracks. Fewer people click through when the answer sits on the results page. Vogel told analysts that legacy session-based revenue was “more of a drag than we expected.”

The figures match what other studies have found. A July analysis showed that AI Overviews halve clicks on the top result. Publishers that took Google to court over the summaries have not won so far: Penske and Chegg lost their cases.

Licensing from Apple News, OpenAI and Meta grew 49%

Digital revenue still grew 2%, to about $289 million, after 6% growth in the second quarter. The money is shifting. Revenue tied to site visits fell 6%. Revenue that does not depend on visits rose 15% to $125 million, about 43% of digital revenue. Quinn expects it to reach about half by this time next year.

Licensing, which covers content shown on other platforms, grew 49% to $52.7 million. AdExchanger lists news aggregators such as Apple News and Yahoo and AI firms such as OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft among the partners. Digital advertising fell 8%, although the company says it is charging higher rates. Its D/Cipher tool, which targets ads by the topic of a page, now also works on other sites and on connected TV.

People Inc. cuts 195 jobs and starts paid memberships

Vogel said the company cut 195 jobs, about 6% of staff. It has also launched paid online memberships: People VIP and MyRecipes+. More than six million users have registered across the two.

The cuts have a price. The company expects $15 million to $20 million in severance costs in the fourth quarter.