Publisher group tells OpenAI judge members lost 26% of visitors.

US publisher group Digital Content Next has asked the judge in the New York Times case against OpenAI and Microsoft to accept a brief saying AI answers drain publisher traffic. Its member data shows unique visitors down 26% from 2023 to 2025.

DCN filed the proposed amicus brief on 29 October in the consolidated OpenAI copyright litigation before US District Judge Sidney Stein in New York, according to PPC Land's reading of the filing. It joins the record only if the judge allows it. Besides the fall in unique visitors, the brief reports 18% fewer page views and 16% fewer visits for participating members over the same period. A July 2026 member survey found Google-referred traffic down a median 22% year on year over eight weeks, after a 10% fall in the same survey in 2025. DCN says members' advertising revenue and total revenue each fell 5% in 2025, and that advertising made up 84% of their digital revenue that year.

The brief leans on a Microsoft document, as quoted in the news plaintiffs' summary judgment brief: "Our AI content strategy has started a 'doom loop'." DCN argues that AI tools which retrieve and summarise recent reporting act as a substitute for it, that letting publishers opt out is not the same as asking permission, and that paid licensing deals show a real market exists.

There are gaps. The brief doesn't say how many members took part in the surveys or how the traffic was measured, or how much of the fall came from other changes in search and social distribution. The New York Times is a DCN member, which the filing discloses. As of PPC Land's report, Judge Stein had not ruled on whether to accept the brief. Both sides filed summary judgment motions on 4 September.

Our read: Gulf news and lifestyle publishers that sell display and video inventory face the same shift in search and AI referrals. Whether AI firms end up paying for news will shape how much premium inventory survives, and at what price.