California government officials and Big Tech are nearing an agreement to jointly provide at least $242.5 million in funding for journalism, including local and ethnic outlets. The agreement, first reported on by KCRA, would put an end to bills that would require tech companies to pay newsrooms a portion of their search and display revenue.
Under the California Journalism Preservation Act, which this agreement would stop from advancing, social media companies and search engines would be required to pay a share of their advertising revenue to news organizations based on how much organizations’ content shows up in social media feeds or search results. As protest, Google stopped showing local California news organizations in its search results to some California users.
The new deal would see the California government pitch in $70 million and Google put up $172.5 million towards newsrooms.
“In the latest draft of the framework, there is also a provision that 12% would go to “underserved” and “local” news outlets,” wrote Steve Waldman and Anna Brugman of Rebuild Local News. “It’s a bit hard to know what that means, but based on what we’re hearing, it’s likely that means members of California’s ethnic press and outlets with fewer than five employees.”
