What Did Press Gazette Report About Clickout Media?
Press Gazette, the UK trade title for journalism, reported on October 26, 2026 that “several journalists have been made redundant across sites owned by parasite SEO company Clickout Media” (Press Gazette). The report, by Rob Waugh, describes a company that “buys journalistic outlets” and “uses their reputation in Google search to boost links for online casinos.” Parasite SEO is the industry term for publishing promotional pages on a well-ranked host site so they rank better than they would on their own.
The named sites are Gambling Insider and Esports Insider. Journalists told Press Gazette that Gambling Insider “was penalised by Google in September,” and the redundancies “are believed to be in the wake of manual Google penalties against the sites.” Press Gazette does not quote Google confirming a penalty on either site, so the penalty is the journalists’ account and the link to the job cuts is the publication’s inference. It says other gaming sites “believed” to have been hit include gamingamerica.com, playsense.nl and casinobeats.com.
The report puts numbers on the business. Insiders told Press Gazette that “Clickout may have bought up to 300 websites,” and a Substack newsletter it cites put the price of Gambling Insider at up to £14m. Press Gazette says the UK company trades as Finixio, which “reported turnover of £1,972,275 in the year to September 2025,” down from £40m the year before, with a £1.7m loss. Companies House lists Finixio Ltd, company number 11705811, as an active company incorporated on November 30, 2018, with “Other publishing activities” as its business and its last accounts made up to September 30, 2025 (Companies House).
£ million
Source: Press Gazette, “Clickout Media makes journalists redundant but bylines revived with AI” (October 26, 2026), citing Finixio Ltd’s accounts at Companies House. Read October 26, 2026.
Press Gazette gives the earlier figure only as “£40m”; the later figure is £1,972,275, rounded here. Both are as reported by Press Gazette from Finixio’s filings; we confirmed the company record at Companies House but did not open the accounts themselves. Press Gazette says Clickout trades as Finixio; Clickout Media Ltd itself is reportedly based in Malta.
By our arithmetic, the reported turnover fell by about 95% in a year (from £40m to £1.97m); because Press Gazette rounds the earlier figure, treat that as approximate.
What Happened to the Journalists’ Bylines?
Press Gazette reports that AI-written articles ran under the names of people who no longer worked there. At Esports Insider, “at least five” journalists disappeared and were replaced “by a byline saying: ‘ESI Editorial Team,’” and the articles under it “score 100% AI-generated according to the AI detector Pangram.” AI detectors give probabilities, not proof, so that score is Press Gazette’s test result rather than a finding about how the copy was made.
The clearest case is Ben Touati, who covered esports. In July, Press Gazette reported that Clickout revoked his access on March 9, 2026, that he was not employed from March 23, and that he found five AI-written articles under his byline on May 26 (Press Gazette, July 9, 2026). The October report says the German Esports Insider site then carried 28 new casino articles under his byline, with last-updated dates between May 15 and July 14, 2026. “Every one falls after 9 March, the day Clickout revoked my access, and from 23 March I wasn’t even employed,” Touati told Press Gazette. “Casino copy is a different job. I never wrote it, then or now.”
Clickout’s answers are limited. In October it “claimed not to own Esports Insider,” although “multiple employees told us they ran the site,” Press Gazette wrote. In July, Clickout told Press Gazette: “We use AI-assisted content where appropriate in tandem with human checks and edits.”
What Is the Timeline, as Reported?
Laid end to end, the two Press Gazette reports give this sequence. The table is our compilation from those reports and the Companies House record; we have not confirmed the events with Clickout or Google.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| November 30, 2018 | Finixio Ltd incorporated in England | Companies House |
| January 2024 | Ben Touati starts work at the company, then called Finixio | Press Gazette, July 9 |
| Late 2024 | Techopedia, a Clickout site, penalized by Google for parasite SEO | Press Gazette, July 9 |
| Year to September 2025 | Finixio reports turnover of £1,972,275 and a £1.7m loss | Press Gazette, October 26 |
| March 9 and 23, 2026 | Touati’s access revoked; his employment ends | Press Gazette, July 9 and October 26 |
| May 26, 2026 | Touati finds five AI-written articles under his byline | Press Gazette, July 9 |
| May 15 to July 14, 2026 | Last-updated dates on 28 casino articles under his byline on German Esports Insider | Press Gazette, October 26 |
| September | Gambling Insider penalized by Google, according to its journalists | Press Gazette, October 26 |
| October 26, 2026 | Press Gazette reports redundancies and AI bylines | Press Gazette, October 26 |
Which Google Rules Does This Touch?
Two of Google’s published spam policies describe what Press Gazette reports. Google’s site reputation policy covers “third-party content” published on a host site “mainly because of that host’s already-established ranking signals,” and one of its own examples is “a low-quality, third-party advertising page about ‘best casinos’” placed on an unrelated site to rank better (Google Search Central). Our guide to whether the site reputation policy applies to sponsored articles reads that policy line by line.
The second is scaled content abuse, which Google defines as “when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users,” with “using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users” as its first example (Google Search Central). Our scaled content abuse definition covers where that line sits for bulk placement.
The table below is our own reading, matching what Press Gazette reports to the closest policy text. It is not a finding by Google about any of these sites.
| Reported practice | Closest Google policy | What the policy text says |
|---|---|---|
| Buying outlets and using their search reputation to boost casino links | Site reputation policy | Applies where third-party content is hosted “mainly because of that host’s already-established ranking signals” |
| Many AI-written promotional casino pages | Scaled content abuse | “Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users” |
| AI copy under a former employee’s byline | None we found | The spam policies we read do not address bylines; Touati filed a GDPR claim, Press Gazette reported in July |
Two exemptions matter for ordinary placement. Google says “columns, opinion pieces, articles, and other work of an editorial nature” and advertorials whose purpose is “to share content directly to readers” are not inconsistent with the policy (Google Search Central).
What Does a Manual Action Do to Pages on the Site?
A manual action can push pages down or out of Google results, and it does so quietly. Google says most manual-action issues “will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user,” and that it notifies the site owner “in the Manual actions report and in the Search Console message center” (Google Search Console Help). Only someone with Search Console access to the site sees that notice.
Recovery is possible but not quick. A site that fixes “all issues listed in the report” in “all pages” can request review, and Google says “most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks” (Google Search Console Help). Press Gazette reports that sites can appeal and that Esports Insider had been penalized before.
Where the reader sits also matters. Since Google changed the site reputation policy for the European Economic Area (EEA), pages found out of line “may be subject to a manual action” in results shown outside the EEA, while inside it they “may be categorized as separate from the main domain but won’t be subject to the impact of manual action,” so that “casino content ranks against other casino content” (Google Search Central, page last updated August 28, 2026). A UK site’s pages can therefore be demoted for US searchers and ranked separately for German ones.
What Can a Buyer Check Before Paying for a Placement?
A buyer cannot see a manual action, so the useful checks are indirect. These are our recommendations, not Google rules:
- Look at who writes there now. Check whether recent bylines belong to people who still list the outlet on their own profiles. A shared “Editorial Team” byline replacing named staff is the pattern Press Gazette describes.
- Read the latest 20 headlines. A news or trade site whose newest pages are mostly casino, loan or “best of” affiliate pages has changed what it is, whatever its history.
- Search for the site’s own name and its recent stories. If its pages no longer show up for their own headlines, something has changed; Google’s own spam update timing is one innocent explanation, a manual action another.
- Ask the seller in writing whether the site has received a manual action in the last 12 months, and keep the answer.
Our guide to checking a placement after Press Gazette’s Baden Bower reports covers masthead checks, and our piece on bogus bylines in contributed articles covers verifying a named contributor.
What This Means for Anyone Buying a Placement
A placement borrows the host’s standing, so it carries the host’s risk. If a site was bought for its ranking signals and is then penalized, an article placed there can lose search visibility along with everything else on the domain, and neither the buyer nor the reader is told. A paid article is advertising, labeled as sponsored and normally carrying nofollow or sponsored links (our guide to whether a paid placement passes SEO value explains why). Its value is the audience the outlet actually has, not a ranking it might lose.
Methodology and Limitations
Four limits apply. First, the Clickout account rests on Press Gazette, a single publication, across two reports by the same reporter; we found no independent confirmation and label it as Press Gazette’s reporting throughout. Second, Press Gazette does not quote Google confirming any penalty, and Google does not publish manual actions, so whether a given site was penalized is unverified. Third, the Pangram score is a detector result, not proof of authorship. Fourth, we read Google’s policy pages as published on October 26, 2026; the mapping table is our interpretation, not Google’s.
Conclusion
The Clickout case is an extreme version of a risk every placement buyer takes: the page you pay for sits on a site whose search standing you do not control and cannot see. Google’s own words are the warning: pages can be “omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.” Judge a placement by the outlet’s real readers and editors today, and assume its search visibility can change.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Press Gazette report about Clickout Media?
On October 26, 2026, Press Gazette reported that several journalists were made redundant at Clickout Media sites, including Gambling Insider and Esports Insider, after what staff believe were manual Google penalties, and that AI-written articles appeared under former staff bylines. Clickout told Press Gazette it does not own Esports Insider.
What is a Google manual action?
Google says it issues a manual action when “a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant” with its spam policies. Affected pages can rank lower or be left out of results, and the site owner is notified in Search Console.
Can readers tell if a site has a Google penalty?
No. Google says manual actions affect rankings “without any visual indication to the user.” Only the site’s owners see the notice, in Search Console.
Does a Google penalty affect a sponsored article I paid for?
It can. A manual action can lower or remove pages on the affected site or section from results, and a placement on that site is one of those pages. Under Google’s site reputation policy, the effect differs inside and outside the European Economic Area.
Is publishing AI-written articles against Google’s rules?
Not by itself. Google’s scaled content abuse policy targets “many pages” generated “for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings,” with using generative AI “to generate many pages without adding value for users” as an example.
How long does it take a site to recover from a manual action?
The site must fix every listed issue and request review; Google says most reconsideration reviews “can take several days or weeks.” Google does not promise rankings return to where they were.
Sources and Methodology
This explainer is built from two Press Gazette reports on Clickout Media (July 9 and October 26, 2026), Google’s spam policies page (last updated August 28, 2026), Google’s Search Console Help page on manual actions and the Companies House record for Finixio Ltd, all read October 26, 2026. The Clickout account is Press Gazette’s reporting from a single publication; we did not contact Clickout, Google or the journalists. The timeline and policy-mapping tables and the turnover arithmetic are our own compilation; the buyer checks are our recommendations, not Google rules.
- trade press Press Gazette (Rob Waugh), Clickout Media makes journalists redundant but bylines revived with AI. Redundancies, penalties as reported, ESI Editorial Team byline, Pangram score, 28 articles, Touati quotes, Finixio figures, Clickout denial. Read October 26, 2026.
- trade press Press Gazette (Rob Waugh), Journalist fired by Clickout Media saw robot reporter take over their byline. Touati’s dates, five AI articles on May 26, GDPR claim, Clickout’s July statement. Read October 26, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search. Site reputation policy, casino example, exemptions, EEA treatment, scaled content abuse. Read October 26, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Console Help, Manual actions report. Definition, notification, effect on results, reconsideration timing. Read October 26, 2026.
- official Companies House, FINIXIO LTD, company number 11705811. Status, incorporation date, nature of business, accounts dates. Read October 26, 2026.