LAGOS, 26 August 2026 — News publishers and media industry experts have called on artificial intelligence companies to establish revenue-sharing arrangements with publishers whose journalism is increasingly being used to generate AI-powered answers and summaries.
The call came during the second edition of SquirrelPR’s annual industry webinar, “How Brands Can Prepare for AI Search and Declining Organic Discovery”, which brought together journalists, publishers, technology professionals and communications practitioners to discuss how artificial intelligence is changing the way people find and consume information.
The discussion focused on a growing concern among publishers: as AI-generated answers give users information without requiring them to visit the original publisher’s website, media organisations risk losing the traffic and advertising income that help sustain professional journalism.
AI search is changing how audiences find news
Victor Oluwole, Managing Director of Business Insider Africa, said the traditional relationship between visibility and website traffic is changing.
“Being found no longer guarantees being visited. Impressions do not pay for journalism; a visit to the website is what pays for journalism.”
His comments highlighted the financial challenge facing publishers as AI-powered search and answer systems increasingly provide information directly to users.
David Afolayan, Managing Director of Technext, said his organisation had already experienced a substantial decline in views and revenue.
“Our views are declining by over 60% year in, year out. We are losing revenue by over 30%, and the AI companies are growing by leaps and bounds.”
Afolayan argued that AI companies using publishers’ data and journalism for their chatbots should find mechanisms for sharing the resulting revenue with the organisations producing the underlying content.
“If they are using our data for their chatbot, there should be a way we can share the revenue.”
Publishers face a growing verification challenge
The speakers also examined the wider implications of AI for journalism, particularly the growing difficulty of determining what information can be trusted.
Oluwole noted that artificial intelligence has made the production of information considerably cheaper, while increasing the burden on journalists and audiences to establish what is authentic.
The spread of fake quotes, cloned voices, deepfakes and fabricated documents means there may be more information available than ever before, but reliable information is increasingly difficult and costly to verify.
For news organisations, this creates a challenge that goes beyond declining website traffic. Publishers must continue investing in journalism, verification and credibility while operating in an environment where audiences can increasingly obtain information without directly visiting the sources that produced it.
Should publishers optimise for AI or revenue?
Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor and Team Lead at Africa Digest News, said publishers need to regularly reconsider what they are trying to achieve as technology and audience behaviour change.
He questioned whether publishers should primarily optimise their content for AI systems or focus on generating sustainable revenue, while stressing the importance of remaining credible, trustworthy and relevant to their audiences.
Damilola Olatunji, Head of Monetisation and AI at BellaNaija, similarly pointed to the changing nature of the audience ecosystem.
He observed that what people consumed or paid attention to five years ago may no longer attract the same level of interest, making it necessary for publishers to adapt as audience habits evolve.
Communications and business objectives are increasingly connected
The impact of the changing information environment also extends beyond news publishers.
Joyce Imiegha, Founder and CEO of Renee PR, linked the disruption to the broader business role of communications. She argued that communications objectives and business objectives cannot be treated as separate concerns because ineffective communication can ultimately affect business performance and brand reputation.
The discussion therefore highlighted the need for publishers, communicators and technology companies to respond to changing audience behaviour while considering how the economic value of professional content is distributed.
SquirrelPR webinar builds on RANKED report
The webinar followed the launch of SquirrelPR’s RANKED report in April, which highlighted a significant decline in website visits as audiences increasingly consume information without clicking through to publishers’ platforms.
SquirrelPR, an African PR infrastructure platform that builds tools and creates platforms for industry conversations, launched its annual webinar series in 2025 with a discussion titled “How Storytelling Can Help Shape Africa’s Narrative.”
The latest edition examined the implications of AI search and declining organic discovery for publishers, brands and communications professionals.
While participants acknowledged that publishers must adapt to technological change and evolving audience behaviour, the discussion also raised concerns that adaptation alone may not address the underlying revenue challenge.
As AI companies increasingly rely on professionally produced journalism to help answer users’ questions, participants argued that sustainable business models should recognise the economic value of the reporting and content that underpin AI-generated answers.
For SquirrelPR, the conversation forms part of its wider effort to provide a platform for Africa’s media, communications and technology communities to address emerging industry challenges.
The debate is no longer simply about whether artificial intelligence will change how people discover information. It is increasingly about how the information ecosystem can embrace AI innovation while ensuring that the journalism needed to produce reliable information remains economically sustainable.
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