Google Pays Millions to California Media

SACRAMENTO (dpa) – By promising to pay millions of dollars, Google has managed to avoid a law in the US state of California that would have required internet companies to pay local media companies. The agreement aims to invest around $250 million (€224 million) in journalism over the next five years, announced the bill's author, California state representative Buffy Weeks. The money should come not only from Google, but also from the state.

The legislative initiative is modeled after laws in Canada and Australia. Regional media outlets in the United States in particular are suffering from declining ad revenues, while ad dollars are moving online — including to Google and Facebook’s Meta group. More than 100 newspapers have disappeared in California alone in the past decade, Weeks noted.

According to Weeks’ office, Google will pay $15 million in the first year to a new fund at Berkeley, $5 million to an artificial intelligence project and $10 million to existing journalism programs, the Mercury News reported. It is set to pay $20 million each year for the next four years. The state of California will pay $30 million in the first year and $10 million in subsequent years to the UC Berkeley Journalism Fund. It was not initially clear what other amounts would make up the nearly $250 million total./See/DP/jha