On Wednesday, Google struck a first-in-the-nation deal with Californian lawmakers to put millions of dollars into the local newsrooms in an effort to support the journalism they profit from.
However, this agreement was met with backlash and heavy criticism from journalists who called it ‘disastrous’.
According to the deal, Google and the state of California will contribute money over five years to support local newsrooms, except broadcasters, through a “News Transformation Fund.”
The Oakland Democrat who led negotiations, Buffy Wicks, said that Google would give $110 million, and the state would bring in $70 million to support journalism endeavors and launch an artificial intelligence “accelerator” to fund journalists’ work.
California Governor Gavin and the California News Publishers Association have praised this agreement. However, it was criticized by the unions representing the state’s journalists who supported Wicks’ bill to fund newsrooms but were not involved with the deal.
The Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA, and others said, “The Legislature embarked on an effort to regulate monopolies and failed terribly. Now we question whether the state has done more harm than good. California’s journalists and news workers OPPOSE this disastrous deal with Google and condemn the news executives who consented to it in our names.”
Democrats in the California legislature, including state Sen. Steve Glazer, also
Condemn this move, saying, “It does not provide sufficient resources to bring independent newsgathering in California out of its death spiral.”
California State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire also criticized the deal.
Media Guild also said, “The premise of these bills is that if we are going to be dominated by a monopolist whose product we cannot escape, except at enormous cost to our own business, that monopoly needs to pay its fair share for our journalism.”
