Google just made a $250M deal with California to support journalism — here's what it means
Google has agreed to contribute over $100 million toward new California programs to fund journalism. But is it a good deal?
This week, Google joined a $250 million deal with the state of California to support California newsrooms. While the deal offers a much-needed cash infusion for an industry that’s seen crippling layoffs this year, the deal’s been criticized by some as a half-measure — and a cop-out.
By agreeing to this deal, Google averts bills that would have forced it and other tech companies to pay news providers when they run ads alongside news content on their platforms.
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.”
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