• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 7 hours ago

Gavin Newsom, who seemed like a hero when California agreed to a $250 million deal with Google and Meta to fund local newsrooms, is a hero no longer. 

The California governor and Democratic presidential prospect has quietly killed that agreement. The planned newspaper subsidy has been stripped from Newsom’s proposed $400 million budget for 2025-27, SFist reports. 

Say it ain’t so, Governor. 

This is very bad news at a time when local newspapers are struggling to survive.

The reason probably is the state’s budget shortfall. But California had not issued any information about that at deadline. 

The history shows just how cynical this effort was. 

Months after signing it, California reduced its $30 million payment to support newsrooms by $20 million.

Google saw an opportunity to save money, and promptly followed suit, reducing its $15 million payment by a third. It's not clear what Meta's deal was with the state, or what its plans are. 

And now Google is making noises that it will follow Newsom’s lead and no longer contribute, SFist writes. Why should it if the state isn’t paying its share?

Not that newspapers were going to give Newsom a free pass in their coverage of him just because he gave them money.. But he can no longer pretend to be a financial supporter of newspapers. Hopefully, that won’t stop him from fighting for the First Amendment.