The Media Guild of the West (MGW), the local chapter of the journalism labor union the NewsGuild-CWA, denounced the deal in a post on X, calling it a shakedown.

“After two years of advocacy for strong anti-monopoly action to start turning around the decline of local newsrooms, we are left almost without words,” MGW said in a statement. “The publishers who claim to represent our industry are celebrating … minimum financial commitments to Google to return the wealth this monopoly has stolen from our newsrooms.”