California's $125 million deal with Google to support journalism is already seeing significant cuts before any funds have been disbursed. Initially, California was to allocate $30 million in the first year, but Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed reducing this amount to $10 million due to budget shortfalls. This change has upset local news advocates who view the original deal as inadequate. The deal's execution is further complicated by the absence of formal agreements, raising doubts about Google's commitment to its matching funds.
"It's extremely disappointing," said Steven Waldman, president of the journalism advocacy group Rebuild Local News. "It was already too small and they've walked in the wrong direction from it at a time when the collapse of community news in California continues ..."
In exchange, lawmakers scrapped two ambitious proposals that sought to force the search engine behemoth and its tech counterparts to pay outlets for using their published content.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday proposed to slash the state's initial commitment to the journalism fund by two-thirds, reducing the first-year payment of $30 million to $10 million.
The cut is part of Newsom's May budget proposal, in which he's seeking to close an estimated $12 billion shortfall for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that begins in July.
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