"Plan as if Google sends you nothing." That was the blunt advice from John Barnes, Chief Digital Officer at William Reed, speaking at B2B Media Days 2026 in Berlin. 

A statement like that may startle a lot of editors or content producers, but the data backs it up. Google search traffic to publisher sites dropped by a third in 2025 across the entire world. A Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report predicts that media leaders should expect a further 43% decline over the next three years. And another report finds that as of early 2026, 58% of Google searches now result in zero clicks — meaning that users find their answer directly from Google without ever reaching your page. 

For years, Google has been treated as a given. You published, Google indexed, readers arrived. Editorial and content strategies were built around that assumption, even if nobody explicitly said it out loud. 

That assumption, however, is now a liability. Publishers who built strategy on search traffic alone are finding that the channel dried up before they had constructed anything to replace it. Chasing the next algorithm update or SEO hack is not the answer. The question is what you need to build instead. 

Can Newsrooms Build Audiences That Google Can't Take Away? 

The uncomfortable truth in content planning and publishing is that anonymous search traffic was never a given. In fact, it was always dependent on Google’s algorithm, not on any real relationship between you and your readers or site visitors. The moment the algorithm changed — or an AI overview answered the question before anyone clicked through — that audience was gone. 

Those adapting fastest have recognized this. These are the editors and content producers who have already shifted efforts and investment towards direct, first-party audience relationships, meaning, readers who subscribe, register, pay for access or follow them on various platforms and social channels. None of them showed up due to a search algorithm. These are readers who made an active decision to connect with the publisher, not visitors who simply arrived via a search result and never returned. 

Speaking at B2B Media Days, Barnes described this as the central strategic shift of the moment — moving from unknown to known users. Not simply as a side project or pipe dream, but as the overarching editorial strategy. Now, it’s true that Barnes comes from a B2B publisher and speaks to those in that world. But the same holds true for newsrooms, magazines and communications teams creating content. When you know who your audience is, what they need, and how they engage with your content, you are no longer dependent on an outside platform to make the introduction.  

Building for this type of known audience changes the way your newsroom works in practice. It changes what you decide to cover, how you prioritize stories, which platforms you invest resources into and how you measure success. It’s a concrete editorial decision, not just a lofty mission statement. 

Editorial Workflow Management

Knowing the audience is only half the battle. The other half is making sure all departments on your team (editorial, social, video, photo, etc.) all work from the same plan, with the same content priorities in sight. That doesn’t happen by accident. It requires the right tools, connected in the right way. 

For many newsrooms and content teams, this simply isn’t the case at the moment. Disconnected tools create silos where data is spread out, teams work in isolation and nobody has the full picture. The photo team has their own planning tool and editorial has another altogether. Social works off a spreadsheet, and who even knows what the video team uses to plan. The point is that nobody knows what is being made, when it’s going out or who it is going out to. And, if your tools and teams are disconnected, so is your understanding of who you are publishing for. 

In his presentation, Barnes described inheriting what he called, “a stack of technology, not a technology stack” — more than 100 tools, each its own silo and with a goal of reducing that number to under 20. The problem is not unique to large B2B publishers. It is a reality for newsrooms and content teams of every size. 

The answer to this problem is fewer, better-connected tools where all teams work from one shared plan. Connect your existing tools to create an editorial stack that gives everyone — editorial, social, video, photo — visibility over the same content, the same deadlines and the same priorities. That is how a coordinated team stops working in isolation and starts working with purpose.   

Plan for Your Audience, Not for Google

Newsrooms that come out ahead in a post-Google world are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or most content. They are the ones where all teams are working from the same plan, on the same tools, publishing with purpose and direction. 

Human connection and trusted editorial judgment are what AI cannot replicate. A connected, coordinated team is what makes both possible. 

Kordiam is where that coordination happens — one shared plan, built around the content your readers come back for. 

Photo by © Monique Wüstenhagen