Publishers lifted paid search spending to $113m in July, Similarweb says
Similarweb counted about $113m of paid search spending by the top 100 media publishers in July 2026, 41% more than a year earlier.
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Large news publishers are buying the readers that search used to send them for free. Similarweb counted about $113m of paid search spending by the top 100 media publishers in July 2026. That is 41% more than a year earlier and 274% more than three years ago. Adweek published the figures on 9 September.
Forbes alone spent $72.2m, two thirds of the total
One publisher dominates the number. Forbes spent $72.2m on paid search in July, up 34% in a year and eight times its level three years ago. The New York Times came second at $11.3m, more than double the year before.
The money did bring people in. Paid search sent 23.7 million visits to these publishers in July, 39% more than a year earlier.
Organic traffic fell 26.7% at Forbes and 28.9% at CNN
The reason sits on the other side of the ledger. Free traffic from Google search dropped 26.7% at Forbes over the year, 28.9% at CNN and 24.1% at USA Today. More answers now appear in the results page itself, so fewer people click through.
Not every publisher reports the same. Le Monde said this week that it has seen no audience drop from AI Overviews. The French title leans on subscriptions rather than on search-driven page views.
Clicks cost $1 to $3, and up to $50 on money terms
Publishers are not bidding on news. They buy commerce and product pages, where a visit can pay for itself through affiliate links. Adweek reports typical prices of $1 to $3 a click, rising to about $50 on terms such as pet insurance or credit consolidation.
David Carr, an editor at Similarweb, told Adweek there has been a “surge in pay-per-click spending since April”. Shiv Gupta of U of Digital was harsher, saying publishers “are feeding the thing that is killing them”.
Advertisers now bid against the sites they advertise on
For a brand running search campaigns, this is a cost story. A publisher with an affiliate deal can outbid the retailer whose product it reviews, on the same commercial keywords. Auction prices in categories such as insurance, finance and consumer goods go up as a result.
Two things are worth checking this month. First, look at whether media titles now appear above you on your own product terms. Second, compare what a click costs you against what it costs a publisher who earns a commission from the same sale. Newsrooms are also rebuilding around this, as USA Today did when it reorganised its audience team.