03/08/2025
How often do you click on a link after searching for something on Google? 🔍💭
If you are anything like us, the answer will be a lot less than you used to.
Google’s AI Overviews, those little snippets of information that answer whatever question you are asking without having to visit a website, have soared in popularity and it’s not surprising. They are a much better way to quickly find the information you are looking for.
Unfortunately, they also have the side effect of making it almost impossible for publishers like us to run websites like KentOnline for free.
Google is taking all the information our journalists have researched and written to create its Overviews - but we don’t receive a penny for it. And with far fewer people feeling the need to click through to our site, our advertisers miss out too.
We don’t think that’s fair, but unfortunately Google is so big and so powerful there’s nothing we can do about it. 🙄
The model we have used to fund KentOnline since 1999 is fundamentally broken, which is why we are talking about digital subscriptions quite so often.
We are enormously grateful to the thousands of people who have already placed their trust - and their money - with us to take out a subscription. 🙏
We hope it will allow us to continue covering courts, councils and campaigning on your behalf for years to come, but the reality is the number of people subscribing is a tiny fraction of those who read KentOnline for free.
We are acutely aware of the financial pressures many are under at the moment, which is why we try to make as much of our content as we can free to read. But if you can afford to support us, it will make all the difference.
👉 Go to www.kentonline.co.uk/subscribe to find out more about the benefits a digital subscription provides, including an ad-lite experience and exclusive content. And don’t forget you can get 50% off with the special HALFPRICE code!
