Google has decided to end its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times, signaling a shift in its media subscription strategy. This move is part of Google’s broader cost-cutting efforts, despite the company’s strong financial performance.
Google has been actively reducing costs throughout 2025, with initiatives such as eliminating 35% of managers overseeing small teams and offering voluntary exit programs across various divisions. The company’s CFO, Anat Ashkenazi, indicated last year that they would continue to pursue cost reductions, a stance that remains unchanged despite robust Q2 2025 results with $96.4 billion in revenue.
These cost-cutting measures may result in minimal savings for Google but coincide with strained relationships with news publishers. Recent data has shown a decline in referral traffic from Google Search to publishers, with significant drops observed for major outlets like CNN, Business Insider, and HuffPost.
The decrease in traffic is largely attributed to Google’s AI Overviews feature, which has reduced click-through rates to external websites. Pew Research data indicates a decline in user engagement with external content due to AI-generated summaries provided by Google search results.
The decision by Google to cancel its subscription to the Financial Times has sparked criticism from industry leaders. Neil Vogel of People Inc. labeled Google as a “bad actor” at a recent Fortune event, accusing the tech giant of using the same bot for website crawling and AI functionalities.
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In a scathing op-ed, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint criticized Google’s AI overviews for creating a “zero-click” environment, where all traffic ends within Google’s ecosystem. The tech giant declined to comment on these allegations.
