Welcome back to “The Media Front.”
CNN spent years relying on Google to help audiences find its journalism. Now, the news network has struck a deal to get paid when the search giant uses more of that reporting in its artificial intelligence products.
CNN announced the multiyear agreement Thursday, joining Axios, the Financial Times and other publishers in Google’s expanding News AI program. More than 400 publications worldwide are participating, according to Google, which is compensating them for expanded content rights.
For publishers, it’s a potentially valuable new revenue stream. But getting paid for journalism doesn’t necessarily mean gaining more control over how readers find it. And developments elsewhere this week showed that news organizations and technology companies remain far apart over who gets to decide how that journalism is used.
On Friday, the News/Media Alliance challenged changes to Meta’s commercial terms, arguing that the language could allow the company to collect material from news websites for AI training without permission or payment. Meta disputed that interpretation and has since removed the contested wording, according to The Verge.
Earlier in the week, more than 40 publishers, including The New York Times, The Economist and Agence France-Presse, joined the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights coalition, which is developing ways to track and control AI companies’ use of their work. The group now has more than 80 members across over 20 countries.
The push comes as publishers face another challenge: declining search traffic.
Pageviews referred by Google Search fell 34% between December 2024 and December 2025 across sites measured by Chartbeat. Over two years, sites with smaller daily audiences lost 60% of their search traffic, compared with 22% for larger sites. AI-generated answers give readers another way to find information without visiting news websites, although AI isn’t the only factor behind the declines.
As I reported Thursday, Google’s agreement gives it expanded rights to CNN’s journalism for experimental AI features. But neither company specified which Google products would use CNN’s journalism, disclosed financial terms or said whether the agreement includes AI training rights. That leaves some important questions about the deal unanswered.
Sam Felix, CNN’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and business development, said the agreement would create new ways for audiences to access the network’s reporting while ensuring CNN is compensated for its intellectual property.
The agreement also comes less than two weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance took control of CNN. Ellison has made AI a priority for the company, and the Google deal fits with that approach. It’s unclear whether Skydance played a role in the agreement.
For CNN, which is expanding its digital business under Mark Thompson, licensing provides another potential revenue source beyond advertising and subscriptions. Publishers have spent years adjusting to changes in search algorithms and social-media distribution, often with little say over decisions affecting their traffic. Licensing at least gives them an opportunity to negotiate compensation and contractual rights over certain uses of their reporting.
Google says its News AI program includes attribution and links to original reporting. The company also announced changes Thursday intended to make links more prominent in its AI-powered search products. Those features could help publishers reach readers who might otherwise never visit their websites.
But a licensing agreement doesn’t give CNN control over Google’s broader search results. And smaller outlets may not have the same negotiating leverage as CNN or the Financial Times. With many financial terms undisclosed, it’s unclear whether payments can offset revenue lost as search referrals decline.
Chartbeat’s findings also suggest readers aren’t abandoning news websites altogether. Average weekly pageviews across its network fell about 6% from 2024 to 2025, far less than search referrals. Internal traffic — readers moving between pages on the same website — increased from roughly 38% of pageviews in 2024 to about 41% by late 2025. AI chatbots still account for less than 1% of total pageviews.
That leaves publishers with two challenges: getting paid when tech companies use their journalism and giving readers a reason to seek it out directly. Licensing agreements may help with the first, but they offer no guarantee of the second.
CNN now has an agreement to get paid by Google. Whether that makes its digital business stronger will depend on more than the size of the check.
The network still needs to give audiences a reason to come directly to CNN.
Katie Zacharia’s Five Days at the White House
Katie Zacharia’s tenure as White House press secretary ended Friday after just five days, following a rocky debut, questions about her legal credentials and difficult television appearances. President Trump had urged her to reconsider the job earlier that day, according to The New York Times.
Her first briefing lasted roughly 14 minutes, with questions taken from just three outlets: Breitbart News, Fox News and the Daily Mail. Zacharia said her role was to amplify the president’s agenda rather than answer to the press. Subsequent appearances with Sean Hannity and on “Fox & Friends” reportedly made matters worse. CNN reported that her Hannity interview helped cement Trump’s decision to remove her.
Zacharia praised Trump in a statement Friday evening, but her departure leaves the White House searching for another spokesperson. The next press secretary will face the same challenge: representing a president who often speaks for himself while answering questions from a press corps whose access his administration continues to restrict.
Benjamin Lindsay’s piece: Trump’s New Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Fired After Less Than a Week
CBS News’ Editorial Fight Goes Public
CBS News’ internal tensions spilled into public view this week when foreign editor Shayndi Raice warned staffers that insubordination could be grounds for firing during a heated meeting over the network’s coverage of Israel and Gaza. The confrontation followed disagreements over changes to correspondent Holly Williams’ reporting for the Oct. 7 anniversary, as Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss continues reshaping the news division.
As I reported Tuesday, citing leaked audio obtained by Status, Williams challenged the removal of allegations involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Raice defended the decision, saying CBS had not independently verified the allegations and Netanyahu had denied them.
Editors have the authority to make final decisions about what goes on the air, particularly when allegations require further verification. But the latest confrontation raises a larger question for Weiss’ CBS News: How does new leadership enforce its editorial standards while maintaining the confidence of experienced correspondents? The issue isn’t simply who gets the final say. It’s whether journalists can challenge those decisions without their disagreements being treated as insubordination.
My full piece: Bari Weiss’ Foreign Editor Threatens CBS Correspondent in Clash Over Citing Palestinian Gaza Deaths
CNN and CBS News: Separate Newsrooms, Shared Costs?
Skydance has promised to keep CNN and CBS News editorially independent following its $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. But with roughly $80 billion in debt and at least $6 billion in targeted cost savings, the company faces a question about how much of the infrastructure supporting the two news organizations needs to remain separate.
In my examination of the potential CNN-CBS integration, current and former media executives pointed to opportunities to share facilities, production technology and international newsgathering resources. “Simply living under the same roof does not guarantee anything,” former CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein, who previously worked at CBS News, told me.
The challenge is finding savings without undermining the reporting operations that make CNN and CBS News distinct. Separate editorial leadership may be relatively easy to promise. Sharing crews, bureaus and other resources could make that independence more complicated in practice.
My full piece: CNN and CBS News Will Stay Separate Under Skydance. But How Much Can They Share?
Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Deal Clears a Major Hurdle
Fox’s proposed $22 billion acquisition of Roku cleared a shareholder hurdle Wednesday, moving the companies closer to a combination that would put a major television programmer and one of the largest connected-TV platforms under the same roof. The deal still faces regulatory review, with the companies targeting a closing in the first half of 2027.
Fox already operates Fox News, Fox Sports, Tubi and its subscription streaming services. Roku brings a platform reaching more than 100 million streaming households, along with advertising technology and a valuable position between television programmers and their viewers. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has described the combination as pairing the company’s news and sports content with Roku’s distribution business.
For Fox, the acquisition would mean more than attracting viewers to its programming. It could give the company greater influence over how content is discovered, promoted and monetized across a platform used by competing programmers. That potential advantage also raises questions about how Roku would treat other companies’ content under Fox ownership.
Lucas Manfredi’s full piece: Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Secures Shareholder Approval