• by Ray Schultz , June 26, 2024

The California Journalism Preservation Act (Assembly Bill 886) is closer to passage following approval by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. It now moves on to the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), the bill would require big-tech companies like Meta and Google to pay publishers a “journalism usage fee” when they use local news content and sell advertising next to it. It would also mandate that publishers invest 70% of the profits from these fees in journalism jobs.  

The State Senate progress was hailed by the News/Media Alliance.  

“For too long, Big Tech has reaped windfall profits at the expense of the local publications that go into our communities and hold government and other institutions to account,” says Danielle Coffey, president & CEO of the News/Media Alliance. “We look forward to publishers in California finally getting the compensation they need and deserve to be able to continue their critically important work.”

In April, Google started blocking links to news sites for some California users in response to the bill.  

But Coffey adds: “Google has agreed to terms with and is paying publishers in other countries, and now California has taken another significant step toward doing the same. There is no stopping this forward motion and Congress must follow these leads and act now to ensure a future for journalism in our country.”

Last year, Google agreed to pay Canadian publishers $100 million per year for use of their news content on the Google search platform, while Meta is blocking news content in the country.