We’re at a turning point, my friends. For years, both digital publishers and brands have built their content strategies around a simple strategy: Create SEO-friendly content so Google will send you traffic and then turn that traffic into ad revenue or subscribers. Or, for brands, customers or leads.
That isn’t working out so well anymore with Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude et al. Folks can increasingly get the info they need (“How do I create a smoky eye?” “What is this rash on my foot?”) without ever clicking through to the original source, whether that source is Cosmopolitan or Glossier; Healthline or Northwell Health. Take in this stat: Google searches now end without a click 68% of the time.
Long anticipated, it has finally reached the point where publishers are acting as if “Google zero” is here. At the Digiday Publishing Summit earlier this month, publishers openly admitted that search traffic isn’t coming back and talked about rebuilding their businesses so they are less traffic-dependent.
This “pivot to” could be bigger than the Pivot to Video (which frankly hasn’t stopped). This one is Pivot to Audience.
Instead of focusing primarily on getting folks to a piece of content sitting next to a programmatic ad (or, for brands, getting someone onto the site to eventually buy something) publishers and marketers are investing in ways to create a direct relationship with their audiences. The Content Marketing Institute is telling brands outright: build direct connections so you aren’t wholly dependent on search engines and social algorithms.
Media brands are already doing this: brands like USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired are investing in apps as destinations, and building loyalty through newsletters, subscriptions, events, and communities all while expanding their reach through YouTube, Substack, and podcasts.
Consumer brands are shifting too. More than a third of brand marketers say they’re seeing decreases in search traffic because of AI-generated search. If SEO articles are no longer the reliable way to get customers onto your site to buy your product, you need to find a way to get them back.
The m.o. has reverted to traditional editorial and marketing strategies like—gasp!—building authority and loyalty. What’s old is new again. As editors, we need to pull out and dust off our old-school editorial instincts and storytelling skills. Brands need them. 🙌
Here’s what you need to lean into now to make yourself marketable. (At least before the next “pivot to” happens!)
1. Think in franchises, not just stories
SEO has often felt like whack-a-mole: producing a constant stream of content around whatever people are searching for at the moment, capitalizing on that traffic, and then moving on to the next thing. If that reader never came back? That’s okay; there was always a new one coming tomorrow. It’s a process that can be both soul-crushing and relentless for editors.
Moving forward, SEO will still be part of the equation, but now the goal is increasingly to get readers / consumers to linger, connect, and come back on their own. So the question becomes: What information, point of view, or format could become associated with our brand?
I love this because it’s so old school. It means creating destination products: a recurring newsletter, an annual Best of [Blank] 2026 list, a weekly column, a podcast, a video series, an event, a community, something people deliberately seek out and return to.
Do it now: Update your portfolio so it’s not just links to individual stories. Reframe and package your work to show you have conceived, built, and / or executed franchises that stick.
2. Identify as “audience first”
This should not be hard for editors. You’ve always thought about the reader first. That’s part of what makes editors great storytellers: You know your audience and how to connect with them. “Audience growth” is showing up in more editorial and content jobs now—not just social media roles.
The New York Times, for example, just posted an Editor, Weekend Audience role focused on audience growth across search, social and emerging platforms, and an Audience Editor, Video role focused on growing the reach and impact of Times video across both its own properties and platforms like YouTube and TikTok. (Get your applications in!)
The editors who get jobs like these won’t just be choosing stories based on SEO and Google Trends keywords.What a relief! They’ll be helping build destinations and habits that bring readers back on their own. That takes high-quality original content with a point of view, a distinct voice and a recognizable way of delivering information. It means knowing which angles your audience cares about, how to speak to them on their level, and what keeps them engaged. Sound familiar? That’s what OG editorial has always done.
Do it now: Add relevant keywords like “audience development,” “audience growth,” “audience engagement,” and “community building” to your LinkedIn profile where they truthfully reflect your experience.
3. Lean into your subject-matter expertise
Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been beating this drum for years: Generalists struggle. Specialists thrive. Brands increasingly want editors and content marketers who know their subject matter and know it well. AI has only exacerbated that. ChatGPT, Copilot, and other LLMs are great at synthesizing information that already exists. That makes generic content easier and cheaper to produce. But turns out AI isn’t as good at a few other crucial skills: Original reporting. First-person experience. Proprietary research and data. Deep source relationships. A point of view earned over years of actually covering something.
So brands need to stop thinking that “content” means publishing another generic explainer about a topic vaguely adjacent to their product. They need a niche, a voice, and someone with real subject-specific knowledge. If you know healthcare, finance, beauty, tech, climate, workplace issues, whatever, lean into it. You’re not just a content strategist. You are a content strategist who specializes in ______. Whatever fills in that blank is the hardest to replicate.
Do it now: Make that expertise obvious on your résumé and LinkedIn. Put it in your headline and summary. Highlight the beats you’ve covered, the experts you’ve interviewed, the proprietary research you’ve produced, the sources you’ve built, the conferences you’ve attended, the podcasts or TV shows you’ve been interviewed as an expert on.
It all comes back to What can we build that people will remember us for? That may be the new mandate for content. And yet it’s also very old-school editorial thinking. This pivot? You already know how to make it.
#editorsmakethebesthires
Chandra Turner is the founder of The Talent Fairy, a boutique recruiting agency that specializes in placing editorial and content marketing talent for brands, non-profits, and media. She also serves as a career coach for editors, writers, and brand storytellers.
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