Newsom Strikes Deal with Google and OpenAI to Support California Newsrooms | KQED

But Glazer was less conciliatory. “This agreement, unfortunately, seriously undercuts our work toward a long term solution to rescue independent journalism,” he wrote in a statement. “There is a stark absence in this announcement of any support for journalism from Meta and Amazon. These platforms have captured the intimate data from Californians without paying for it. Their use of that data in advertising is the harm to news outlets that this agreement should mitigate.”

The “News Transformation Fund” established by the deal will be administered by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, which would distribute funding to California-based state and local news organizations, particularly those serving “news deserts” and underserved and underrepresented communities. “The University and specifically the UC Berkeley School of Journalism stand ready to support this endeavor,” UC President Michael V. Drake said.

In the first year, Google will deposit $15 million a year into the new journalism fund, $5 million into the AI accelerator and $10 million toward existing journalism grants.

In a statement, Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer for Alphabet, the umbrella company that owns Google, wrote, “California lawmakers have worked with the tech and news sectors to develop a collaborative framework to accelerate AI innovation and support local and national businesses and nonprofit organizations.”

Google ran an aggressive lobbying campaign against both bills in Sacramento and even temporarily removed news links from its search engine in California in reaction to AB 886.

The company made similar threats in both Canada and Australia before coming to agreements to contribute to news organizations in both countries.

Meta followed through on threats to remove news links in both Australia and Canada in response to specific legislative actions in order to influence the terms of legislation. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

The agreement has the support of the California News Publishers Association, which represents 700-plus member newsrooms. “This is a first step toward what we hope will become a comprehensive program to sustain local news in the long term, and we will push to see it grow in future years,” CEO Chuck Champion and Board Chair Julie Makinen wrote.

But the deal has critics, including Free Press Action Co-CEO Jessica J. Gonzàlez, who wrote: “We are disappointed in this outcome and this process. Good policy is made out in the open, where people can see and participate in the democratic process.” The group said the agreement fails to address the harms Silicon Valley has done to journalism in California, noting that “Since 2004, the state has lost 25 percent of its newspapers, total news circulation has plummeted more than 50 percent, and many ethnic media outlets and nonprofit newsrooms have struggled to survive.”

Work will begin immediately to set up the AI accelerator and the UC Berkeley-administered fund, with plans to go live in 2025.