People Inc CEO Neil Vogel used to run his business with Google in mind. Now he’s looking to do AI deals.

People Inc CEO Neil Vogel used to run his business with Google in mind. Now he’s looking to do AI deals.

By Peter Kafka
Publication Date: 2026-03-18 17:23:00

Lots of publishers are freaked out about “Google Zero” — the notion that one day, Google will stop sending them any traffic at all.

That’s more or less already happened at People Inc., says CEO Neil Vogel: Vogel says Google referrals used to account for 70% of his properties’ traffic, but dropped off quickly in the last couple of years. Now Google represents about 25% of its mix.

That decline is supposed to be an existential problem for people like Vogel, who spent years building…