Google Referrals Down 70%, People Inc. Pivots to Non-Session Revenue

People Inc.'s Google search referral traffic is down 70% over the past two years, including a 26% drop in Q3 alone — its steepest single-quarter decline yet — and CEO Neil Vogel told investors Tuesday that the traffic is gone for good.

The Q3 earnings call laid out the damage in hard numbers. AI Overviews (Google's AI-generated summaries at the top of results) now appear on 90% of searches tied to People Inc.'s content, Vogel said. Chairman Barry Diller described a "critical loss of sessions." The decline contributed to 195 layoffs, roughly 6% of staff, last week.

Yet the company insists the worst is behind it, and its financials back that up — partially.

Where the revenue actually stands

Digital revenue grew 2% year over year in Q3 to $289 million, the twelfth consecutive quarter of digital growth. Total Q3 revenue fell 4% to $431 million. Advertising revenue dropped 8% year over year, and performance marketing growth slowed from 13% in Q2 to 2% — a shift CFO Tim Quinn attributed largely to Amazon Prime Day falling in Q2, pulling about 4% of growth into the earlier quarter.

Executives separated official results from interpretation carefully. Vogel conceded the traffic isn't returning, but argued the company saw this coming: it coined the term "Google Zero" (the scenario where search referral traffic disappears almost entirely) and has spent three years repositioning around it.

What does this change for practitioners?

For publishers and ad buyers, the shift is toward non-session revenue — everything not tied to site visits. That category now makes up 43% of People Inc.'s digital revenue and grew 15% year over year in Q3. Session-based revenue, the other 57%, fell 6%, though Quinn noted it could have been worse: web sessions themselves dropped 26%, and higher premium ad rates on programmatic and direct-sold inventory cushioned the hit.

The non-session playbook includes:

• Licensing deals with aggregators (Apple News, Yahoo) and AI companies (OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft). Licensing revenue grew 49% in Q3, though Quinn warned growth will slow in Q4 against the tougher comparison created by last year's Meta deal.
• D/Cipher, its contextual targeting technology (ads matched to page context rather than user data), now extended to third-party sites and CTV (connected TV), which Vogel called an untapped opportunity.
• Sponsored social video. "The Intern," a short-form series with InStyle staff, sells brands a full-season sponsorship of seven three-minute episodes. "We weave that sponsor into the plot line in a wink, wink way that users enjoy," Vogel said, with sponsors able to layer on events and media across YouTube and Instagram. He called the format "very lucrative and very high margin." Packages around People's "Sexiest Man Alive" franchise — this year featuring Noah Wyle of "The Pitt" — grew associated revenue 50%.
• Owned apps, including MyRecipes and the People VIP paid tier, which Vogel wants to monetize further.

Not everything has paid off. A Southern Living-branded sweet tea line, discussed for nearly a year, still hasn't launched.

The timeline and the bets behind it

Quinn said the three-year transformation should deliver its first major returns in 2027. Diller set a harder deadline: he'd be "very disappointed" if the company doesn't return to double-digit growth next year.

Diller also confirmed People Inc. abandoned plans to use its MGM Resorts stake to take itself private, though it still holds 26% of MGM stock and expects to buy more. He rejected an MGM proposal to acquire People Inc. and said no offer meets his expectations. The pullback frees capital for reinvestment and buybacks, and Diller said the company will pursue acquisitions aggressively — though likely small "bolt-ons to the publishing business."

One more potential windfall sits with the courts. Quinn said People Inc. still expects a nine-figure damages payout from its ad tech antitrust lawsuit against Google, noting USA Today's case is moving forward and People Inc.'s is next in line.

If that payout lands, it may be the last big check the publisher ever collects from Google.