The early reviews on the state of California’s deal with Google to secure funding for local newsrooms are mixed, to say the least.
The “first-in-the-nation partnership” — which aims to help cash-poor publishers and save jobs — has drawn fierce opposition from the Media Guild of the West, which argues Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and others let Google and its allies off the hook.
“California’s journalists and news workers oppose this disastrous deal with Google and condemn the news executives who consented to it in our names,” The Media Guild of the West said in a statement.
“The publishers who claim to represent our industry are celebrating an opaque deal involving taxpayer funds, a vague AI accelerator project that could very well destroy journalism jobs, and minimal financial commitments from Google to return the wealth this monopoly has stolen from our newsrooms,” the union added.
For Google, a company that made $307 billion from digital advertising last year and earlier this month was deemed a “monopolist” by a federal judge, the deal allows it — and other Big Tech firms — to avoid legislation that would have specifically required them to pay a share of advertising revenue to news outlets.
The deal calls for almost $250 million over five years — $110 million from Google, $70 million from California’s taxpayers and $70 million (from private donors) to fund a so-called “AI accelerator” nonprofit to develop newsroom tools, according to a report by Politico.
Newsom called the agreement “a major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms.”
But some California Democrats were critical. State Sen. Steve Glazer described Google’s offer as “completely inadequate” and said it “seriously undercuts our work toward a long-term solution.”
State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, meanwhile, highlighted “concerns that this proposal lacks sufficient funding for newspapers and local media, and doesn’t fully address the inequities facing the industry.”
The nonprofit News Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,200 publishers, said the deal “reinforces the need for federal legislation and potential court remedies to address this broken marketplace.”
“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,” News Media Alliance CEO Danielle Coffey said in a statement.
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