California is taking steps to ensure that big tech companies pay media organizations for content distributed on their platforms. The California Journalism Preservation Act, which has passed the relevant committee, stipulates that companies such as Google and Meta must share revenue with newspapers based on shared news and reports. An arbitration process would decide the exact amount, and the media groups must ensure that 70% goes directly to journalists. The bill is backed by politicians from both major US parties. California has lost 100 news organizations in the past 10 years alone, according to the draft author, Buffy Wicks of the Democrats.
While the law won’t save journalism, it would provide some support to local media companies whose advertising revenues have been hit hard in recent years. The bill is seen as a necessary way to help journalists who have been hit hard by the falling revenues, but some unions have warned that it could encourage clickbait.
The Facebook parent company Meta has threatened to ban all news content from its platforms if the bill becomes law, likening its stance to similar moves in Canada and Australia. The proposed payments would only benefit large media groups, according to Meta, which maintains that it provides access for media firms to earn money through advertising. In Australia, both Google and Meta agreed to pay for news content after a period of blocking it.
As part of the compromise, Google launched News Showcase and Facebook News, two specially created news services paying selected media groups to deliver content, but not all publishers are involved in the schemes.
