By Sara Guaglione
Publication Date: 2026-02-26 05:01:00
This week’s Media Briefing will look at how Google’s Preferred Sources feature promises publishers more control over audience loyalty — yet leaves them flying blind on traffic data and impact six months in.
Six months after Google debuted its Preferred Sources feature, publishers still don’t know how it’s affecting search traffic.
Google launched the feature to give users more control over which news outlets they want to see in search results. Users can select the news sites they want to appear in Google’s “Top Stories” in a “From your sources” section to customize their search results and make it easier to find and read content from favored or trusted sources.
But Google hasn’t made any data available to publishers on how many people are clicking on their sites from those sections, how much traffic is coming from there, or how many people have selected their site as a Preferred Source. Google also doesn’t provide a “Top Stories” filter in its…
