Google AI Overviews Heavily Favor Big Media, Study Finds
New research shows Google’s AI Overviews rarely cite news sources—when they do, big names dominate results.
2 min readHighlights
Just 20.85% of Google AI Overviews cite any news source at all.
BBC, NYT & CNN earn 31% of all AI media mentions.
Smaller publishers struggle as citation gaps widen in AI-generated content.
Source: Visual created by Martech Scholars using Canva Pro to illustrate citation bias in Google AI Overviews.
New research uncovers a stark imbalance in Google’s AI Overviews, revealing a strong preference for major news organizations.
According to a study by SE Ranking analyzing 75,550 AI Overview answers, only 20.85% cited any news source at all. Even more concerning, just three publishers—BBC, The New York Times, and CNN—make up 31% of all citations, highlighting the growing gap between leading outlets and smaller ones.
A Tilted Playing Field
The results expose a heavy concentration of media mentions. Despite the U.S. focus of the queries, BBC led with 11.37%, while the top 10 outlets grabbed nearly 80% of all mentions. Meanwhile, outlets like Financial Times, Vice, TechCrunch, and The New Yorker each secured less than 1%.
SE Ranking noted that Google’s AI prefers authority and familiarity, naturally benefiting large, trusted domains. This biases AI-generated answers against emerging or niche players struggling to get noticed.
Ranking ≠ Relevance
Interestingly, 40% of links included in AI Overviews are not from the top 10 organic results, suggesting AI Overviews draw from trust signals beyond traditional rankings. Using the Gini coefficient (0.54), the study confirmed moderate but significant citation inequality.
AI Overviews frequently cite from paywalled content, too—69% of citations involve snippets of 5+ copied words, often without full attribution. The New York Times and The Washington Post are cited almost entirely from behind paywalls (96%+).
Citations Often Hidden in Links
On average, AI Overviews include 1.74 citations per response, yet 91.35% of mentions appear only in link sections, not within the main response. Brands are also mentioned by name far less often—4 times more likely to appear as a hyperlink than a named source.
Even then, 26% of citations appear without a link, often due to aggregated content being favored over the original.
Query Type & Strategy Matter
News-related searches generate 2.5 times more media citations than general queries. This opens a window for publishers focused on specific news verticals.
To boost visibility, SE Ranking recommends earning backlinks from already cited domains and using schema markup like "isAccessibleForFree" to ensure proper AI handling. Publishers with focused expertise in specific topics may also gain higher inclusion rates.
The Path Forward
The research concludes that while AI Overviews overwhelmingly favor dominant media, opportunities exist for niche publishers with strong authority signals.
With only 20.85% of responses citing news, and most mentions going to a handful of domains, the challenge is steep but not impossible—especially for those who adapt strategically to AI citation patterns.
