Used with Permission

For an interactive version of The Media Bias Chart 5.1, see www.adfontesmedia.com

From www.axios.com/2023/10/03/social-media-traffic-news-sites-decrease

Traffic referrals to the top global news sites from Meta's Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, has collapsed over the past year, according to data from Similarweb.

Why it matters: Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken.

What's happening: Regulatory pressure and free speech concerns have pushed tech giants to abandon efforts to elevate quality information, leaving the public more susceptible to misinformation ahead of the 2024 election.

Yes, but: Disruption is often a catalyst for change.

• The over-reliance on social media traffic kept news publishers from focusing on building stronger consumer products of their own.
• Publishers are better prepared now to defend their intellectual property in the AI era having learned from their mistakes of being too heavily reliant on third parties for survival.