Governor Gavin Newsom proposed to reduce funding by 67% for a pioneering agreement with Google to support the editorial rooms in California in difficulty, citing financial pressures that have favored broader budget reductions.
California's editorial rooms expected to receive $ 30 million in the state as part of an agreement negotiated last year during which Google and the State would contribute jointly over five years to support local editorial rooms thanks to a news processing fund. The State Department of Finance confirmed on Wednesday that California would pay $ 10 million in place for the financial year 2025-26.
“The only reason for the reduction is more limited / fewer resources than expected in the January budget,” said Ministry of Finance spokesman HD Palmer.
Newsom announced on Wednesday that the state was faced with an additional 12 billion dollars budget deficit next year. The revised plan of $ 321.9 billion will also include a reduction in health care for low -income undocumented immigrants and a decrease in overtime for certain government employees.
The agreement was born from negotiations which began with a financing bill written by the assembly Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), known as the name of California Journalism Presevation Act. He would have forced Google to pay a fund each year that would have distributed millions to media in California according to the number of journalists they employ. The California News Publishers Assn., Whose Los Angeles Times is a member, supported the wider effort.
It has been designed to help the newspapers that have seen their finances collapse in recent years, leaving fewer journalists to cover institutions and communities.
The proposal was modeled After a Canadian bill google About $ 74 million a year. Google fought the bill, arguing that its adoption would force the company to remove the news from California from its platform, thus restoring access to the Californians.
Instead, the State and Google agreed in August to provide nearly $ 250 million to the editorial rooms over five years, from 2025, with funding planned for two projects.
The second initiative was a commitment of $ 68 million for Google to finance artificial intelligence in the form of an AI national accelerator. The IA financing element of the Agreement attracted net warming from Democratic legislators and journalists.
California had promised $ 30 million in 2025 and $ 10 million for each of the next four years. Google accepted an initial payment of $ 15 million in 2025 and $ 55 million in total in the journalism fund. Google has also agreed to strengthen its own journalism programs with a separate subsidy of $ 50 million.
Rebuild The president of local news, Steven Waldman, said that the commitment of $ 30 million to support local news was “modest” but a “significant first step”.
“Cut it by two thirds moves California in the wrong direction at a time when local journalism collapses through the state,” said Waldman. “We urge the legislature to hold an open and transparent audience to assess the impact of this deficit and explore the means to ensure that funding corresponds to the scale of the crisis.”
