Google Cuts Financial Times Subscription Amidst Strained Relationships with News Publishers and Accusations of Being a ‘Bad Actor’
Tech giant Google has decided to discontinue its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times, with reports suggesting this isn’t an isolated move as other enterprise media subscriptions face the axe. The decision is part of wider cost-reduction measures at the company, despite reporting robust financial performance.
Google’s cost-cutting initiatives, which began in 2025, have seen a 35% reduction in managers overseeing teams with three or fewer employees, as well as voluntary exit programs offered across multiple divisions since January. In December last year, finance chief Anat Ashkenazi indicated that the company would continue to pursue cost savings further, a strategy seemingly unaltered by Alphabet’s impressive Q2 2025 results, which saw revenue of $96.4 billion.
These cost-saving measures may only amount to thousands, but they come at a time when Google is grappling with strained relationships with news publishers. Data from Digital Content Next in August showed that referral traffic from Google Search to publishers decreased by 10% between May and June this year, with non-news brands experiencing a steeper decline of 14%.
Major outlets such as CNN, Business Insider, and HuffPost have reportedly experienced even sharper traffic drops (of 30%, 40%, and 40% respectively), according to SimilarWeb. Publishers attribute these declines largely to Google’s AI Overviews feature, which has reduced click-throughs to external websites from 56% to 69% since its launch, as per Pew Research.
The move to cancel the FT subscription could be compared to a plagiarist refusing to purchase the textbook they are copying from. At a Fortune event earlier this month, Neil Vogel, CEO of the largest digital and print publisher in the U.S. (People Inc.), criticized Google as a “bad actor” for allegedly using the same bot for its search engine as it does to support AI features.
In a separate, strongly-worded op-ed this summer, Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, accused Google’s AI overviews of creating a “zero-click” environment where “all traffic dead ends at Google.” The company has yet to respond to a request for comment.
