A legislative push to make Google pay California publishers for news appearing on its platform has led to a deal that will see newsrooms, along with an artificial intelligence initiative, receive $250 million over five years, according to an announcement Wednesday from East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ office.
The announcement described the deal as “a first-in-the-nation partnership with the state, news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy,” but provided no breakdown of how much each entity would pay, and exactly how much would go to news outlets and how much to a “National AI Innovation Accelerator.”
A majority of the funding would go to newsrooms, the announcement said.
“The goal is to front-load $100 million in the first year to kick-start the efforts,” the announcement said.
Also unclear are the fates of two bills that were headed toward the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Assembly Bill 886, by Wicks last year, would require Google and Meta to negotiate payments to news publishers for content on their platforms. Senate Bill 1327, by Orinda Senator Steve Glazer, would impose a tax on technology giants for gathering user data and use the money to fund news outlets.
Wicks’ office did not immediately answer questions about the bills.
Newsom, who had not commented publicly on the proposed legislation, was quoted in the announcement promising the deal would provide funding “to support hundreds of new journalists” and help “rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come.”
The announcement from Wicks’ office said funding would “include contributions from technology platforms and the State of California.”
The News/Media Alliance, which represents nearly 2,000 U.S. news publishers, including this news organization, pointed out that a federal court just found Google has a monopoly in internet search.
“Google is a dominant monopoly that reaps significant revenue off scraping and repackaging quality news content, depriving publishers of the opportunity to monetize their content and reinvest in journalists,” said the alliance’s president Danielle Coffey. “Today’s announcement reinforces the need for federal legislation and potential court remedies to address this broken marketplace.”
The alliance said it would work to get the federal Journalism Competition & Preservation Act passed, to “provide fair compensation to news publishers.” That federal bill, like AB 886, would force Big Tech to pay news publishers for content.
The artificial intelligence accelerator, to be administered “in collaboration with a private non-profit,” would appear to serve a purpose beyond supporting the news media. It would give money and other support to “industries and communities” in areas including journalism, the environment, racial equity, “and beyond,” for experiments with AI to “assist them in their work,” the announcement said.
Check back on this developing story.
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