But the Similarweb data offers a clearer picture of just how much further that spending has climbed since, as the shift away from organic traffic has only grown more acute.
The New York Times, CNN, and USA Today Inc. declined to comment.
A Forbes spokesperson said in a statement that, “as one of the world’s leading publishers, Forbes invests in growing its audience through both organic reach and targeted marketing.”
A response that feeds the problem
Increasing the amount of money publishers spend on paid search advertising is just one of several ways in which media companies have responded to industrywide declines in traffic, according to Shiv Gupta, cofounder of the ad tech and media education firm U of Digital.
Some of these responses, such as growing their audiences on owned platforms like mobile apps, are attempts to construct alternate systems that are less fickle than those built on the back of third-party platforms.
But publishers cannot afford to abandon their traditional media businesses as they do so, which means embracing costlier tactics to keep them afloat.
“Publishers are desperate, now more than ever,” Gupta said. “There might be an aspect of this that is damage control, to keep the big boat afloat, as opposed to worrying about the specific profitability on the back end.”
