Google and the state of California inked a $250 million agreement this week to boost California newsrooms. Although the arrangement provides much-needed funding for an industry that has witnessed devastating layoffs this year, some have slammed it as a cop-out and a half-measure.
By accepting this agreement, Google and other internet giants avoid paying news sources when their content is paired with advertisements on their platforms.
In a post on X, the Media Guild of the West (MGW), the local chapter of the NewsGuild-CWA journalism labor union, criticized the agreement and referred to it as a “shakedown.”
MGW released a statement saying, “We are left almost without words after two years of advocacy for strong anti-monopoly action to start turning around the decline of local newsrooms.” “The publishers who say they speak for our sector are rejoicing… in order to reimburse Google for the money this monopoly has taken from our newsrooms, they must make minimum financial commitments to them.”
If California’s lawmakers approve the Google accord, what would it actually accomplish? And is there any cause for optimism?
A bill called AB 886, sponsored by California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks last year, would have required certain platforms to pay publishers a portion of their ad revenue in exchange for linking to those publishers’ articles. A second bill, SB 1327, was introduced by Senator Steve Glazer and would have created a tax credit for newsrooms by imposing a 7.25% tax on ad revenue.
Rather than enforcing a fee schedule, the agreement will create the News Transformation Fund and the National AI Innovation Accelerator using funds from Google, taxpayers, and possibly other private sources.
