The company will now pay $10 million into the initiative to fund local news which will be distributed among California news publishers, according to the office of Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who has been involved in setting up the program. 

The announcement Wednesday came a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting the state’s own share of the first-year commitment to $10 million from $30 million, as California faces a $12 billion budget deficit. 

The new California Civic Media Fund will be administered by the California State Library, which will set up a board of publisher representatives to determine how to distribute it with the goal of “sustaining and enhancing community news coverage in California,” according to a news release from Wicks’ office. The library will also assess the regional availability of news coverage across California to help divvy up the money.

Library officials will oversee the fund’s public dollars to provide public oversight, while Google’s share of the money will be housed in a separate nonprofit. 

“Sustaining local journalism will take all of us — government, philanthropy, and the tech sector — stepping up together,” said Wicks.

Proponents of the new program described the money as “seed funding” and said it would attract other donations from philanthropies interested in funding local journalism — a shift from lawmakers’ initial efforts to fund local news through regulations on the tech sector. Google said it would contribute more money if the state receives private donations.

Jaffer Zaidi, a vice president at Google’s parent company Alphabet said in the release that the company is “committed” to the agreement it made last year. 

Google and California both pledged much more

In their original agreement, the state and Google each agreed to pay $10 million into the fund annually for four more years, for a total of $125 million. The funding now pledged amounts to less than half of what was promised for the program’s first year. The amount paid in future years could still change, depending on the state budget.

The tech titan agreed to the deal last August, having spent a record sum to lobby California lawmakers as they considered two bills that would have forced the company to pay to use news outlets’ published content. 

Advocates for publishers and local news have honed in on the search engine’s ability to profit from links and snippets of news content as one factor that has diminished the news industry nationwide over the past two decades. California has lost one-third of its newspapers since 2005, in a trend experts say worsens civic engagement, polarization and misinformation.

In exchange for lawmakers killing the bills last year, the company agreed to instead help the state start a fund that would have given $125 million to news outlets across California over five years. Most of that money would have come from state taxpayers, while Google also agreed to continue paying its existing grants to news organizations and to pour tens of millions of dollars into an unspecified new artificial intelligence program. 

The company will continue paying those grants, Wicks said Wednesday.

Proponents of the legislation, including news publishers, journalists’ unions and local news advocates, criticized the handshake deal for being too modest. By contrast, one of the bills would have garnered about $500 million a year in fees from Google and other platforms that link to news content, to pay for a tax credit for local journalists. 

Wicks, the author of the other bill which would have required Google, Meta and other platforms to negotiate payments directly with news outlets, said the deal was the best possible outcome in the face of stiff tech industry opposition. 

When Newsom announced the state would reduce its share of funding for the new program last week, it gave Google the opportunity to do the same: The company had only agreed to put money into the fund as a match to state dollars. 

CalMatters CEO Neil Chase was involved in a deal as a board member for Local Independent Online News Publishers. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the organization, newsroom or its staff.

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The kickoff event featured prominent figures from various news organizations, including Inland Empire Community News, KVCR Public Media, Black Voice News, and Frontline Observer, among others. The highlight of the event was a keynote address by Paulette Brown-Hinds, PhD, Chair of the Journalism Innovation Hub+ Fund and Publisher of Black Voice News.

“Both media and philanthropy play a crucial role in advancing a multi-racial democracy and serving the public good. I’ve been particularly excited by philanthropy’s response to the crisis in local news media,” Brown-Hinds said. “As a fund, we are focused on the future, committed to building a stronger news ecosystem by thinking creatively about improving the civic health of our region through community engagement and solutions reporting on vital conditions for thriving communities.”

The Journalism Innovation Hub+ Fund is designed to support innovations in community news, expand reporting on essential conditions, and invest in sustainable models for local news and civic information. The initiative aims to combine philanthropic efforts to enhance impact, connect donors and funders committed to amplifying community voices, and foster more active, informed communities.

The fund’s establishment comes at a critical time. Since the explosion of the pandemic in early 2020, at least 85 local newsrooms in the U.S. have closed. Others have barely remained in operation, cutting staff, salaries, and work hours. About 1,800 newspapers have shut down across the country since 2004. These closures have left many communities as “news deserts,” lacking reliable local news sources.

“Study after study shows how local news fosters informed communities and civic engagement,” Brown-Hinds continued. “We are proud to announce that the Inland Empire has become one of the first regional chapters in California to benefit from this initiative.”

The event also featured remarks from Dean Baquet, former editor-in-chief of The New York Times, who emphasized the critical role of local journalism in maintaining a healthy democracy. “There is an absolute crisis in local news,” Baquet stated. “I’ve visited newsrooms that once had hundreds of journalists and now have just a handful. Collaborative journalism is the way forward. None of these news organizations have the resources to do big investigative stories alone, but together, we can.”

Baquet, who reported on cases of corruption and money laundering between 1990 and 1995, also discussed the need for news organizations to move forward from competitors to collaborators. “Competition was good for journalism when we could do it, but it can’t be sustained anymore. It’s time for us to collaborate to survive and thrive.”

During the Q&A session, Evan Sanford, executive director of the Redlands Area Chamber of Commerce, asked Baquet about his thoughts on whether there are two sides to every story. Baquet responded, “No. There’s no two sides to racism and anti-Semitism. Some stories do have two sides, but most don’t.”

Baquet highlighted the importance of embracing technology in journalism. “We should not run away from tech,” he said. “While there are challenges, there are also tremendous opportunities. Newsrooms must learn to drive change and adapt to the fast-paced demands of the digital age.”

The Journalism Innovation Hub+ Fund aims to support local journalism through collaborative reporting, resources, and innovative solutions. By fostering partnerships and investing in media infrastructure, the initiative seeks to ensure the long-term sustainability of local news and bolster civic engagement.

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