What Did Searchable Study?
How five AI assistants answer local questions about UK places, and which websites they cite. Searchable says it asked “20 questions about local news and local services for each of 100 UK towns and cities,” three times each, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. “That made 30,000 prompts, run on 9 and 10 September 2026 with a UK location set and no signed-in account” (Searchable). Searchable’s page is by Connor Lahey and JP Garbaccio of the company and was last updated September 21, 2026.
Press Gazette reported the study on October 22, 2026, describing the same 30,000 prompts, 20 questions, 100 towns and five assistants (Press Gazette). The 6,000 ChatGPT answers on Searchable’s page are ChatGPT’s share of that run (20 questions, 100 places, three times each), so the two descriptions are one dataset, not two. Most of the source-share figures appear only in Press Gazette’s report; the search-behavior figures come from Searchable’s own page.
How Does ChatGPT Search for Local News?
It rewrites the question, runs several searches, and cites a few of the pages it finds. Searchable says ChatGPT searched the web for 5,863 of its 6,000 answers. It recorded the searches behind 3,002 of those answers, and “every search figure on this page is based on those 3,002 answers and the 9,700 searches behind them”: an average of 3.2 searches per answer, ranging from 1 to 35. Searches start broad and narrow to specific websites using the site: operator (Searchable).
Searches per answer, UK local questions, September 9–10, 2026
Source: Searchable, “How does ChatGPT search for news?” (updated September 21, 2026). Read October 23, 2026.
Search figures are based on the 3,002 of ChatGPT’s 6,000 answers for which Searchable recorded the searches (9,700 searches). Per-question averages rest on roughly 150 answers each. Vendor research; we could not inspect the underlying data.
The chart shows that concrete local questions drew far more searching: planning questions averaged 9.5 searches, while asking where to read local news averaged 1.3. Searchable says searches typically returned pages from about 5 to 21 websites and the answer cited about 2 to 6 of them; in a Doncaster Council example, four searches returned 25 pages from 8 websites and the answer cited 8 pages. In the 981 answers where ChatGPT used site:, it cited at least one of the websites it had searched inside 76% of the time (Searchable).
Which Sources Did the Assistants Cite?
Official bodies more often than local newspapers. Press Gazette reports that ChatGPT “tends to prioritise online updates direct from local councils,” going to council or government sources for 81.3% of questions and local news sources for 0.9%. On crime queries, police force websites supplied 57.8% of the answers and appeared in 95.9% of them. Among ChatGPT’s top 20 news sources for local queries, Wales Online was the only local title, 18th, behind national titles, Wikipedia and Facebook (Press Gazette).
Some figures in the report are on different bases. Press Gazette also says “ChatGPT cites national newspapers (18.8%) almost as much as local ones (21.2%), even on a local query,” which is a different measure from the 0.9% share above, and that the searches “brought back information from 12.3 websites, using information from four in the reply.” We report each figure as published and do not combine them.
| Measure (as reported) | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Prompts (20 questions, 100 places, 3 runs, 5 assistants) | 30,000 | Searchable; Press Gazette |
| Citations across five assistants | 244,725, from 10,000 unique websites | Press Gazette |
| ChatGPT questions sent to council or government sources | 81.3% | Press Gazette |
| ChatGPT questions sent to local news sources | 0.9% | Press Gazette |
| Crime answers supplied by police force websites | 57.8% (present in 95.9%) | Press Gazette |
| Local titles in ChatGPT’s top 20 news sources | 1 (Wales Online, 18th) | Press Gazette |
Citation rate after a site: search (981 answers) | 76% | Searchable |
Why Might Local News Be Cited Less?
The study does not establish a cause, but its own descriptions point to competition and origin. Searchable’s chief executive, Chris Donnelly, told Press Gazette that “one in seven of those searches points to a local news provider” while “one in three is aimed at the council, the police or another official body,” and the report says a publication covering a story “regularly competes with up to 16 other pages to be a source” (Press Gazette). Questions about crime, planning and council decisions also have an official primary source that an assistant can search directly with site:. That last point is our reading, not a finding Searchable states.
Donnelly’s summary for publishers: “For a regional title, AI is not yet making up for the search traffic publishers are losing” (Press Gazette). For context on how many local outlets remain in the United States, see our report on Medill’s 2026 news deserts count.
Does Blocking OpenAI's Search Crawler Matter?
Yes, for ChatGPT search. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says: “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links” (OpenAI). Searchable cites the same rule. A local title that blocks OAI-SearchBot cannot be one of the pages ChatGPT search cites, whatever it has published; see whether news sites block AI crawlers and our check of Reach’s robots.txt.
What This Means for Anyone Buying a Placement
A local newspaper article is not an automatic route into an AI answer about a place. Our recommendations, not rules from any platform:
- Do not assume local coverage will be cited. For factual local questions with an official source, the assistants in this study usually went to that source.
- Keep official pages accurate. If a council, regulator or police page is the likely source for a question about your business or project, make sure the facts there are current.
- Check the outlet’s crawler settings. An outlet that blocks OAI-SearchBot will not appear in ChatGPT search answers.
- Treat paid placements as advertising. A sponsored local article is labeled and its links are typically nofollow or sponsored; payment does not buy an AI citation. See whether you can pay to appear in a ChatGPT answer.
Methodology and Limitations
Four limits apply. First, this is vendor research from a company that sells AI visibility services, and we could not inspect the data. Second, the source-share figures (81.3%, 0.9%, 57.8%, Wales Online) come from Press Gazette’s report; Searchable’s own page, which we read, covers ChatGPT’s search behavior. Third, the search figures rest on 3,002 of ChatGPT’s 6,000 answers, and per-question averages on roughly 150 answers each. Fourth, the data covers UK towns and two days in September 2026, with a UK location set and no signed-in account, so it may not describe other countries, later model versions or logged-in users.
Conclusion
In Searchable’s data, assistants answering local questions lean on the bodies that hold the facts rather than the outlets that report them. The uncomfortable conclusion for a buyer is that local press coverage can serve readers well and still be passed over by the software that increasingly answers their questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ChatGPT cite local newspapers for local questions?
Rarely, in Searchable’s September 2026 UK study. Press Gazette reports ChatGPT went to local news sources for 0.9% of questions and to council or government sources for 81.3%, and Wales Online was the only local title in its top 20 news sources.
How many searches does ChatGPT run for one local question?
Searchable found an average of 3.2 searches per answer, from 1 to 35, across 3,002 ChatGPT answers about UK towns with recorded searches. Planning questions averaged 9.5.
Which sources do AI assistants use for crime questions?
Press Gazette reports that in Searchable’s study police force websites supplied 57.8% of the answers to crime queries and appeared in 95.9% of them.
Are Searchable’s 30,000 prompts and 6,000 ChatGPT answers the same study?
Yes. Searchable ran 20 questions about 100 places three times on each of five assistants, which is 30,000 prompts; ChatGPT’s share was 6,000 answers.
Does blocking OAI-SearchBot remove a site from ChatGPT answers?
OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.”
Is Searchable’s study independent?
No. Searchable sells AI search visibility services, so this is vendor research, and its underlying data is not public.
Sources and Methodology
This Data Report is built from Searchable’s published analysis, Press Gazette’s October 22, 2026 report of the study, and OpenAI’s crawler documentation, all read on October 23, 2026. Buyer recommendations are house advice, not platform rules. We could not inspect the underlying data.
- vendor research Searchable (Connor Lahey and JP Garbaccio), How does ChatGPT search for news?, updated September 21, 2026. Study design, dates, 6,000 and 3,002 answers, 9,700 searches, chart figures, 76% rate, Doncaster example. Read October 23, 2026.
- trade press Press Gazette (Rob Waugh), AI answer engines bypass local news outlets going straight to official sources, October 22, 2026. Citation totals, source shares, crime figures, Wales Online and Chris Donnelly quotations. Read October 23, 2026.
- platform documentation OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers. OAI-SearchBot opt-out sentence. Read October 23, 2026.