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California will be the first U.S. state to direct millions of dollars from taxpayer money and tech companies to help pay for journalism and AI research under a new deal announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Under the first-in-the-nation agreement, the state and tech companies would collectively pay roughly $250 million over five years to support California-based news organization and create an AI research program. The initiatives are set to kick in in 2025 with $100 million the first year, and the majority of the money would go to news organizations, said Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who brokered the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis agreement represents a major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms and bolstering local journalism across California \u2014 leveraging substantial tech industry resources without imposing new taxes on Californians,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. \u201cThe deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists but helps rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come, reinforcing the vital role of journalism in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wicks\u2019 office didn\u2019t immediately answer questions about specifics on how much funding would come from the state, which news organizations would be eligible and how much money would go to the AI research program.<\/p>\n
The deal effectively marks the end of\u00a0a yearlong fight<\/a>\u00a0between tech giants and lawmakers over Wicks\u2019 proposal to\u00a0require companies<\/a>\u00a0like Google<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Microsoft<\/a> to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content.<\/p>\n The bill, modelled after a legislation in Canada aiming at providing financial help to local news organizations, faced intense backlash from the tech industry, which\u00a0launched ads<\/a>\u00a0over the summer to attack the bill. Google also tried to pressure lawmakers to drop the bill\u00a0by temporarily removing news websites<\/a>\u00a0from some people\u2019s search results in April.<\/p>\n \u201cThis partnership represents a cross-sector commitment to supporting a free and vibrant press, empowering local news outlets up and down the state to continue in their essential work,\u201d Wicks said in a statement. \u201cThis is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n California has tried different ways to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing rapidly as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Wicks\u2019 office.<\/p>\n The Wednesday agreement is supported by California News Publishers Association, which represents more than 700 news organizations, Google\u2019s corporate parent Alphabet and OpenAI. But journalists, including those in Media Guild<\/a> of the West, slammed the deal and said it would hurt California news organizations.<\/p>\n State Sen. Steve Glazer, who authored a bill to provide news organizations a tax credit for hiring full-time journalists, said the agreement \u201cseriously undercuts our work toward a long term solution to rescue independent journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire also said the deal doesn\u2019t go far enough to address the dire situation in California.<\/p>\n \u201cNewsrooms have been hollowed out across this state while tech platforms have seen multi-billion dollar profits,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWe have concerns that this proposal lacks sufficient funding for newspapers and local media, and doesn\u2019t fully address the inequities facing the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>High-level insights for high-powered executives. Subscribe to the CEO Daily newsletter for free today. Subscribe now<\/a>.<\/div>\n