Deficit threatens the $ 125 million news deal with Google

From Jean QuangCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

The controversial deal of $ 125 million, which California hit with Google last year, to support the struggling industry of state journalism, is now about to shrink – before one of the money is delivered to news publications.

The deal, announced last August, engages California and Google for each of the tens of millions of dollars in a fund to be allocated to local news editions for five years. In return, legislators Disconnects two ambitious suggestions This seeks to force the search engine Behemoth and his technology colleagues to pay retail outlets to use their published content.

But governor Gavin Newo offered to reduce the state’s original commitment to the two -thirds journalism Fund.

The Finance Ministry spokesman HD Palmer wrote in an email that the administration seeks to reduce the country’s first year’s payment from $ 30 million to $ 10 million solely because of “less resources than predicted in the January budget.” The incision is part of Newsom’s Can be a budget proposalin which he seeks to close approximately $ 12 billion for the fiscal year 2025-2026, which begins in July.

The proposal to reduce the state’s share of funding outraged the local defenders of the news and supporters of the requirement of the technology platforms to pay retail outlets for their content – which they already called last year’s transaction insufficient. He raises questions about Google’s commitment to pay his share of matching funds and the general status of the agreement that was declared in August But it seems that he has made little progress to turn into reality.

There were no fixed sheets signed in Google handshake deal with the state And with the legislators last year – only public promises.

“This is extremely disappointing,” said Stephen Waldman, president of the journalism advocacy group, restores local news. “It was already too small and they were going in the wrong direction from him at a time when the collapse of community news in California continues … Rose mucus Both hearing and misinformation are flooded into the vacuum so that time is essential to try to turn it over. Instead, the efforts are shrinking. “

A project of the deal published last year suggests that UC Berkeley will administer the funding program; The University has since refused to do it And the state has not announced a new administrator. As a result, Google also seems to have not made its $ 15 million payment for the fund, Waldman said.

The deal did not include strict deadlines, but supporters said they were intended to “load” much of the money in the first year, which they thought could earn more private contributions along the way.

The deal hit after millions of lobbying from Google

Neither Newsom’s office nor Google responded to inquiries. The Computer and Communication Industry Association, a lobbying group that last year was largely bankrupt by Google To oppose the news bills, the comment declined. Google’s payments to influence the state legislators rose to nearly $ 11 million from July to September last year, when the bills were considered – 90 times more than they had ever spent lobbying in California for the same period of time.

A spokesman for a member of the Buffy Wix Assembly, who negotiated the deal last year in exchange for abandonment of his bill platforms like Google and Meta would be needed In order to pay a fee or negotiate with news publications to use their news content, he said there would be “more information to share in this in the coming days.”

In a statement, Wicks did not turn to the proposal to reduce state funding. Instead, Oklland’s democrat thanked Newsom for “for achieving a significant public investment that strengthens journalism” and described funding as “advance payment, combined with those of private and philanthropic partners.”

Following the first year’s payments, Google and the country had to invest $ 10 million a year in the fund for four more years.

The company also agreed to continue paying $ 10 million a year in existing grants of news rooms – money that had threatened to refuse If the legislation adopted. And he plans to invest $ 17.5 million in an unspecified artificial intelligence program, which gave some journalists and their Union representatives anxiety about job loss.

Waldman is now worried that the state reduction of funding can encourage the company to do the same. As part of the deal, Google said he would only pay to the journalism Fund as a coincidence of state dollars, said former Senator Steve Glazer, author of the other bill that was scrapped.

“They did not want a precedent to be placed in California, which could easily be repeated in other states, so they insisted on a state match,” he said. “The fact that the governor proposes to renew (part of the deal) is a cherry on top of Google and allows them to reduce their contribution if they wish.”

Bill on Glazer would impose a fee On the main technology platforms for the provision of news publications for a tax credit for hiring local journalists. The measure, the legislative staff, would raise $ 500 million a year. The WIK bill, which requires platforms to negotiate payments to newsletters, was modeled on similar programs in Canada and Australia, but political winds were difficult in the home country of technology companies.

The legislators pursued both proposals to try to overcome the decline of the news industry in California.

Following a national trend, media companies have cashed jobs over the last two decades, as advertisers have fled on print media for the Internet, and technological achievements have changed how readers consume news. The state has lost one third Its newspapers from 2005 of 2005 tend to be experts that it worsens civic commitment, polarization and misinformation.

In order to try to keep their readers, publications are increasingly relying on social media and online search. Google controls the lion’s share of demand in a way violates antitrust lawS

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.