Overview of The Powers That Be — “Publisher Search & Destroy”
This episode of The Powers That Be focuses on two major media shifts: Google’s move from traditional search toward AI-powered “agentic” search, and Byron Allen’s plan to turn BuzzFeed into a video-first, AI-assisted streaming brand. Peter Hamby and Julia Alexander explore how these changes could reshape traffic, monetization, and the future of publishers in an internet increasingly dominated by AI platforms and video distribution.
Google Search Is Being Replaced by AI
Julia Alexander argues that Google’s shift away from the classic “10 blue links” model is a major win for users, but a potentially disruptive one for publishers.
Why Google is making the change
- Google’s AI tools, especially Gemini, can now answer questions, plan tasks, and act more like a personal assistant.
- Instead of just returning links, Google can increasingly:
- build itineraries
- suggest purchases
- help with travel planning
- complete actions through agentic protocols
What this means for users
- Search becomes faster, easier, and more convenient.
- A query like “how do I get from Brooklyn to the World Cup in New Jersey?” may eventually turn into a full trip plan rather than a list of websites.
- Hamby shared a personal example of using Gemini for cooking advice, showing how AI search is already replacing informal human lookup habits.
What this means for publishers
- The old SEO model is weakening as users get answers directly from AI.
- Publishers that relied on search traffic may see continued declines in referrals.
- In the new environment, success may depend on:
- highly specific, niche expertise
- content useful for hyper-targeted queries
- deeper, more detailed reporting that AI systems need to answer specialized questions
The Data Behind the Shift
Julia cited several striking trends showing how quickly search behavior is changing:
- By mid-2025, nearly 70% of Google searches resulted in zero clicks to outside websites.
- Referral traffic from AI and search-related sources grew sharply.
- Gemini usage has surged, eating into share from ChatGPT and Grok.
Big takeaway
Google may still dominate discovery, but users are increasingly getting answers without ever leaving Google’s ecosystem. That creates a paradox for publishers: they still need Google, even as Google sends them less traffic.
The Future of Publisher Monetization
The conversation turns to how publishers might survive in an AI-search world.
Two possible models
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Micropayments
- AI agents could charge small amounts to access premium content.
- Sam Altman’s vision is that users may pay cents or dollars for summaries or articles.
- The challenge: media companies worry that one-off payments won’t build the same loyalty as subscriptions.
-
Hyper-niche content
- Publishers may need to focus on very specific, detailed information that AI systems can’t easily synthesize elsewhere.
- Example: not just “best hotel in New York,” but “best room in that hotel.”
- This favors expertise, insider knowledge, and granular reporting.
Bottom line
The rise of AI search may hurt broad, generic content, but it could create opportunities for highly specialized publishers and creators.
Byron Allen, BuzzFeed, and the Video-First Future
The second half of the episode examines Byron Allen’s purchase of BuzzFeed and his broader strategy for media, streaming, and advertising.
Allen’s vision for BuzzFeed
- He wants to use the BuzzFeed brand as part of a video-first, AI-powered streaming strategy.
- The idea is to fold BuzzFeed into a broader ecosystem that includes:
- creator content
- licensed programming
- user-generated content
- FAST distribution through services like Local Now
What FAST means here
FAST = free ad-supported streaming TV.
- Allen’s Local Now already operates in this space.
- It uses AI and zip-code targeting to deliver a cable-like channel bundle for free.
- BuzzFeed could become a branded channel inside that ecosystem.
The Problem with BuzzFeed’s Identity
Julia points out that BuzzFeed is split between two competing visions:
- Byron Allen’s version: a curated streaming/video brand for FAST and connected TV
- Jonah Peretti’s version: an AI-first, UGC-heavy web platform with games and digital content
That tension makes the brand harder to define for advertisers and audiences alike.
Why this is difficult
- BuzzFeed no longer has the creator IP advantage it once did.
- Many of BuzzFeed’s early stars left to become major YouTubers.
- Unlike franchises like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, BuzzFeed doesn’t have a deep library of valuable IP to leverage.
Can BuzzFeed Compete With YouTube?
Hamby and Alexander question whether BuzzFeed’s FAST strategy can realistically compete with YouTube.
Why YouTube is the real competitor
- YouTube now attracts premium ad dollars.
- It hosts major events and premium creator content.
- It increasingly looks like traditional TV, but with creator-driven scale.
BuzzFeed’s challenge
- Nostalgia for BuzzFeed exists, but mostly from the pre-social-media, pre-Trump internet era.
- That nostalgia may not be enough to drive mass viewing on a FAST channel.
- The audience for FAST is fragmented by platform:
- younger, Black and Hispanic audiences on some services
- older users on others like Pluto TV
- more general audiences on Roku and Samsung
Key Takeaways
- Google is turning search into an AI assistant experience, which is more convenient for users but threatens publisher traffic.
- Zero-click searches are becoming the norm, accelerating the decline of the old SEO model.
- Publishers may need to pivot to niche expertise or micropayment models to survive.
- BuzzFeed’s future is unclear because Byron Allen and Jonah Peretti appear to want very different things from the brand.
- YouTube remains the dominant platform for premium video and creator monetization, making it hard for BuzzFeed’s FAST ambitions to stand out.
Notable Insight
“Google search is dead. Long live Google search.”
That line captures the episode’s central argument: Google is not disappearing, but it is changing so fundamentally that the old internet economics around search, traffic, and publishing may never fully return.