Employees | News/Media Alliance
Arlington, VA – Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Representative Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) announced a public-private partnership with the State of California and Google to fund journalism. This is the first agreement in the United States that will compensate news publishers at scale for the online use of their content by Big Tech platforms. Currently, journalistic and creative content creators are not adequately compensated by platforms for the use of their work, which requires enormous investment to create.
The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA, AB 886), which would require Big Tech platforms to pay news publishers and broadcasters for their journalism, cleared a major hurdle through the California Senate budget last week and has now been introduced to the Senate. Instead of legislation, Rep. Wicks (author of the CJPA) and Governor Newsom have announced a partnership to more quickly ensure that news publishers are fairly paid for the use of their content.
“Google is a dominant monopoly that derives significant revenue from scraping and repackaging high-quality news content, depriving publishers of the ability to monetize their content and invest in journalists,” said Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of News/Media Alliance. “This announcement underscores the need for federal legislation and potential judicial remedies to fix this broken market.”
The federal Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA, S. 1094), introduced by Senate Antitrust Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator John N. Kennedy (R-LA), would address this market imbalance at the federal level and provide fair compensation to news publishers. The bill has strong bipartisan support and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a favorable vote in June 2023.
Meanwhile, on August 5, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled in its landmark case against Google that Google violated antitrust laws with its anticompetitive practices in search and advertising, including against news media. This monumental action builds on years of investigations and litigation against the dominant monopoly. The ruling finally recognizes that this behavior is unacceptable, that Google must be held accountable, and that competition must be restored to the market.
Coffey added, “Representative Wicks has shown incredible commitment to news publishers and, through her efforts, forced concessions from one of the largest tech giants in the world. We also thank the California News Publishers Association for their commitment. We will work with other states and, of course, Senators Klobuchar and Kennedy to pass the JCPA.”
The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,200 news, magazine and digital media companies and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and around the world. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered near Washington, DC, the association is focused on securing the future of journalism through communications, research, advocacy and innovation. For information about the News/Media Alliance, visit www.newsmediaalliance.org.
