Instead of passing bill she carried – See UPDATE with details of “Deal Framework”

CA journalists “oppose this disastrous deal”

“The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals…Not a single organization representing journalists and news workers agreed to this undemocratic and secretive deal with one of the businesses destroying our industry.” – Media Guild of the West

Senator Glazer who has his own bill on the matter opposes deal says it, “seriously undercuts our work toward a long term solution to rescue independent journalism” and doesn’t include Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and Amazon

By Allen D. Payton

SACRAMENTO – On Wednesday, August 21, 2024, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-AD15, Oakland) announced the establishment of a first-in-the-nation partnership with the State, news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy, unveiling a pair of multi-year initiatives to provide ongoing financial support to newsrooms across California and launch a National AI Accelerator.

Together, these new partnerships will provide nearly $250 million in public and private funding over the next five years, with the majority of funding going to newsrooms. The goal is to front-load $100 million in the first year to kick-start the efforts. The total investment could increase over the next several years if additional funding from private or state sources becomes available.

“This agreement represents a major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms and bolstering local journalism across California — leveraging substantial tech industry resources without imposing new taxes on Californians,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “The deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists but helps rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come, reinforcing the vital role of journalism in our democracy.”

Assemblymember Wicks, who represents portions of Western Contra Costa County, authored AB 886 to help ensure the sustainability of local journalism, as news outlets across the country are downsizing and closing at alarming rates. A Northwestern University study published last year found an average of two and a half newspapers in the United States close every week, and that our nation has lost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005. California has lost more than 100 newspapers in the last decade alone.

The new suite of initiatives includes multi-faceted support for publishers across California to address challenges that have impacted the depth and breadth of news coverage in the state. They will help ensure the sustainability of existing and new online publications – with an emphasis on small, local outlets and community-facing journalism.

“As technology and innovation advance, it is critical that California continues to champion the vital role of journalism in our democracy,” saidWicks. “This partnership represents a cross-sector commitment to supporting a free and vibrant press, empowering local news outlets up and down the state to continue in their essential work. This is just the beginning. I remain committed to finding even more ways to support journalism in our state for years to come.”

California news publishers will be the beneficiaries of a News Transformation Fund, to be administered by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, providing financial resources that preserve and expand California-based journalism. The funding will include contributions from technology platforms and the State of California, supporting innovative new investments that promote local journalism. The funding will support California-based state and local news organizations, particularly those serving California local news deserts, underserved and underrepresented communities, and outlets that prioritize California coverage.

“The University of California is proud to partner with Governor Newsom and legislative leaders to bolster the critical work of local news organizations and journalists in California,” said UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “Californians depend on robust local and diverse news organizations to stay informed about their communities, and the University and specifically the UC Berkeley School of Journalism stand ready to support this endeavor.”

Funding for the initiative would be complemented by direct support from the State, helping news organizations keep and grow newsroom staff and offsetting the costs of producing local news and information.

“A vibrant press is crucial for strong communities and a healthy democracy. 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,” saidCalifornia News Publishers Association CEO Chuck Champion and Board Chair Julie Makinen. “We will work with the state and tech companies to make the most of this initiative. We’re grateful to Assemblymember Wicks for her passionate advocacy on behalf of our 700-plus member newsrooms.”

Partners in this initiative also reiterated their strong commitment to strengthening newsroom and ownership diversity for ethnic and underserved communities. The Governor also announced his support for AB 1511 (Santiago), which aims to increase the state’s ongoing commitment to place official marketing, advertising and/or outreach advertising with local and underrepresented media outlets.

“Ethnic and community media outlets in California have a long history of serving as trusted messengers of culturally responsive news to historically underrepresented and underserved communities,” said Assemblymember Miguel Santiago. “These initiatives ensure that California is embracing private sector innovation while developing partnerships with and seeding investments from the public sector to empower local publishers and journalists that are vital to a healthy, thriving democracy.”

Additionally, researchers and businesses will have access to new resources to explore the use of AI to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing society, and strengthen the workforce through a new National AI Innovation Accelerator. This will be administered in collaboration with a private nonprofit, and will provide organizations across industries and communities — from journalism, to the environment, to racial equity and beyond — with financial resources and other support to experiment with AI to assist them in their work. The AI accelerator will empower organizations with the new technology, and complement the work of the Journalism Fund by creating new tools to help journalists access and analyze public information.

“We appreciate the thoughtful leadership of Governor Newsom, Assemblymember Wicks, Chair Umberg, and Senator Glazer on these issues,” said Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer for Alphabet (Google’s parent company). “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 non-profit organizations. This public-private partnership builds on our long history of working with journalism and the local news ecosystem in our home state, while developing a national center of excellence on AI policy.”

“A strong press is a key pillar of democracy, and we’re proud to be part of this partnership to utilize AI in support of local journalism across California,” said Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer for OpenAI. “This initiative builds on our longstanding work to help newsrooms and journalists around the world leverage AI to improve workflows, better connect users to quality content, and help news organizations shape the future of this emerging technology.”

Work will begin immediately to stand up both initiatives, which will go live in 2025. Included below is a range of quotes from additional supporters.

What others are saying:

“The work of local independent publishers is essential to a well-functioning democracy, and this new public-private partnership provides immediate and needed relief. Lawmakers should be proud of this program, which builds on California’s innovative Local News Fellowship with millions of new dollars in a way that prioritizes small publishers and those serving underrepresented groups.” – Chris Krewson, Executive Director of Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, a national nonprofit with 76 of its 600 publisher members in California

“The new public-private partnership provides a pioneering, ambitious program that will offer significant help to local newsrooms that give Californians the information they need to participate in a healthy democracy. It’s encouraging that lawmakers and tech platforms found a way to work together to forge an innovative solution that can be a model for other states.” – Lance Knobel, CEO of Cityside Journalism Initiative, the nonprofit behind Richmondside, Oaklandside and Berkeleyside

“California is leading the way with this first-in-the-nation investment to protect the press and sustain quality journalism. This fund will help news outlets and journalists adapt to a changing landscape with new tools and funding to embrace emerging technologies. This is especially helpful for ethnic and community media which is comprised largely of under-resourced family businesses whose strongest connections are to their community.” – Regina Wilson, Executive Director, California Black Media

“California is home to the largest concentration of multilingual news outlets serving immigrant and ethnic communities in the US. This breakthrough public private partnership to support local journalism brings welcome recognition of the ethnic media sector’s indispensable role in connecting these diverse communities to each other and to the wider public realm.” – Sandy Close, Director of Ethnic Media Services (EMS), a California-based nonprofit which works with 2000 ethnic news outlets nationwide, including over 300 in California

“It represents an equity-media model for the nation,” added Julian Do, EMS Co-Director

“Protecting and rebuilding California’s robust media ecosystem and ensuring it serves immigrants, Latinos and communities of color equally requires an important role for philanthropy, our tech and private sector, and yes, California’s State Government. We see this historic agreement as just the first major step where the State of California can lead the way in building a sustainable media ecosystem for the most diverse state in the Union.” – Arturo Carmona, President of the Latino Media Collaborative 

“This is a win for all Californians. Disinformation flourishes when quality journalism disappears. This critical funding will help local publishers survive and keep their communities informed and engaged.” – Neil Chase, CEO of CalMatters and former editor of The Mercury News and East Bay Times

“The revival of a strong, independent community-minded local press is vital for California. All things considered, this agreement both injects new money into doing that and helps spur the innovation, tech and otherwise, required at this moment. As a companion to the California Local News Fellowship, it’s another brick in the rebuilding of California journalism.” – Ken Doctor, Newsonomics news analyst and Lookout Local founder and CEO

“Supporting local news and journalism is vital to enabling a fully informed and engaged community. We are very pleased to see California as a leader in building this public-private partnership that will substantially impact local journalism and essential news coverage in communities throughout California. This vital funding will support our local news and will enable an expansion of our initiative to add to the depth of our bilingual coverage and journalists in Napa Valley – where 40% of the population is Latino.” – Marc Hand, CEO and Board Chair of Highway 29 Media, a publisher of newspapers serving communities in Napa Valley

California Journalists’ Guild Opposes Deal, Calls it a “Shakedown”

In addition, the Media Guild of the West, which represents journalists and had supported Wicks’ bill, issued a statement on Wednesday opposing the deal entitled, “California’s journalists do not consent to this shakedown.”

The guild’s representatives and signatories to the statement (see below) wrote, “This afternoon, Google, California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, California Governor Gavin Newsom and many of California’s publishing lobbies announced ‘a first-in-the-nation partnership with the State, news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy, unveiling a pair of multi-year initiatives to provide ongoing financial support to newsrooms across California and launch a National AI Accelerator.’

After two years of advocacy for strong antimonopoly action to start turning around the decline of local newsrooms, we are left almost without words. The publishers who claim to represent our industry are celebrating an opaque deal involving taxpayer funds, a vague AI accelerator project that could very well destroy journalism jobs, and minimal financial commitments from Google to return the wealth this monopoly has stolen from our newsrooms.

Not a single organization representing journalists and news workers agreed to this undemocratic and secretive deal with one of the businesses destroying our industry. Moments ago, the following opposition letter was filed with the California legislature:

We represent journalists and news workers who provide essential news for millions of Californians in print, digital, broadcast, commercial and nonprofit newsrooms.

The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals. The Legislature embarked on an effort to regulate monopolies and failed terribly. Now we question whether the state has done more harm than good.

California’s journalists and news workers OPPOSE this disastrous deal with Google and condemn the news executives who consented to it in our names.

Signed,

Matt Pearce, President, Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213
Jon Schleuss, President, The NewsGuild-CWA
Annie Sciacca, President, Pacific Media Workers Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39521
Carrie Biggs-Adams, President, NABET-CWA Local 51
Javad Ayala, President, NABET-CWA Local 53
Kevin Gallo, Regional Vice President 5, NABET-CWA
Frank Arce, Vice President, Communications Workers of America District 9

Glazer Also Opposes Agreement, Calls it “Inadequate”

State Senator Steve Glazer (D-SD7, Orinda), who represents most of Contra Costa County and has his own bill on the matter, SB911, also does not support the deal and on Wednesday issued the following “Statement on Wicks-Google Agreement”: 

“Despite the good intentions of the parties involved, this proposal does not provide sufficient resources to bring independent news gathering in California out of its death spiral.

Google’s offer is completely inadequate and massively short of matching their settlement agreement in Canada, in supporting on-the-ground local news reporting.

Democracies live and die based on the free exchange of information and oversight between government and its people. Autocracies and dictatorships thrive when that information is constrained or manipulated.

The hollowing out of independent news gathering and the monopoly power of these digital platforms is an existential threat to our democratic republic.

This agreement, unfortunately, seriously undercuts our work toward a long term solution to rescue independent journalism

There is a stark absence in this announcement of any support for journalism from Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) 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.” 

Questions for Wicks About the Agreement and Initiatives Go Unanswered

Questions were emailed Wednesday night to Wicks’ Director of Communications, Erin Ivie, asking, “Do you email out press releases to media that cover her district? Was there a press conference held announcing the agreement?”

Other local media publishers in Contra Costa County didn’t receive the press release about the agreement nor an invitation to any press conference at which it was announced, either.

She was also asked the following:

“Why didn’t she reach out to the local media that cover her district for our input like Congressman Mark DeSaulnier did for his legislation?

Which news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy are party to the agreement?

Can you ease provide copies of the two initiatives mentioned in the press release or the link to where they can be found?

What are the definitions of ‘newsroom’, ‘local journalist’ and ‘local news outlets’ mentioned in the press release, including in a quote by the Assemblywoman?

Which newsrooms will qualify for the funds? Who will determine which newsrooms will receive the funds and how much they will receive?

Will the funds be provided directly from the tech companies and philanthropy to the newsrooms, or will they be funneled through a state government agency? Will there be an application process and to whom will the applications be submitted?

Who will be working on both initiatives? How does a local news publisher get involved in the process?”

Finally, Ivie was asked, “Won’t the allocation of taxpayer funds included in the agreement still require legislation to be passed? If so, what will be the process? Will the Assemblywoman continue to pursue passage of AB866? If so, will it be amended to include the elements of the agreement?

UPDATE: Wicks’ Staff Provides Details of Deal

In response, Ivie provided the “Deal Framework, Measures to support democracy, journalism and AI innovation” (see below). In addition, she provided answers to the Herald’s questions:

“Eligible for the funding are nonprofit and for-profit news organizations who have been around for at least two years. The funding is awarded by headcount, overseen by a diverse board (outlined further down). 

The one exception is commercial broadcasters, who were carved out of the agreement because they continue to generate healthy profits from advertising dollars. 

The funds will be distributed by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, by an approved claims administrator who typically handles complex distributions of class action settlements. Details of the application process are forthcoming, but in the meantime, anyone interested can contact our office to get on a list to receive those details.

The state is currently committed to providing a minimum of $70M over 5 years, and that commitment is limited to the journalism fund only. Google has committed to $110M minimum over the same time frame, plus $62.5M for their AI accelerator. 

That means that taxpayer funds could be used to support the journalism fund, but not the work of the AI accelerator. It will not require legislation to be passed, but it will require a budget allocation (in January), which the Governor has already committed to. 

Our office, Google, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, plus a seven-member governing board. That board will consist of two CNPA members, one member from Ethnic Media Services, one from Local Independent Online News (LION), one from Latino Media Collaborative, one from California Black Media, and one from Media Guild of the West. 

Any local news publisher who wants to get involved can email our office and be brought into the fold. If you’re interested, please email our Legislative Director Zak Castillo-Krings at zak.castillo-krings@asm.ca.gov. 

The agreement was made in lieu of AB 886, and the bill will no longer move forward.”

Deal Framework

Measures to support democracy, journalism and AI innovation

1. Summary: Creation of first-in-the-nation partnerships that will provide nearly $250 million in public and private funding over the next five years, with the majority of going to support newsrooms. The goal is to front-load $100 million in the first year to kickstart the efforts. Total investment could increase over the next several years if additional funding from private or state sources becomes available.

2. State Contribution: 30mm in year one. 10mm in each of the next four years (years 2-5). All money will be contributed to a new fund established at UC Berkeley School for Journalism.

3. Google Commitment to Journalism, up to 30mm a year, as follows:

a. Year one:

$15mm to the Journalism Fund

$5mm to AI fund accelerator

$10mm in funding for existing journalism programs

b. Years 2-5: Google continues its contribution to Journalism Fund at 10mm minimum. Google maintains 10mm in funding for existing journalism programs

4. National AI Accelerator

a. Managed by as-yet-to-be finalized non-profit organization, under terms to be

defined by funders

b. Google commitment of additional 10mm to Accelerator

c. Google commitment of additional 2.5mm to fund AI research

d. Additional contributions from other tech companies

5. UC School of Journalism non-profit public charity

a. Administration costs are not to exceed a customary overhead

b. Purpose is to bolster UC’s efforts to support and catalyze local news

throughout the state

c. Overseen by a 7-member governing board:

i. CNPA member

ii. CNPA member

iii. Ethnic Media Services

iv. Local Independent Online News

v. Latino Media Collaborative

vi. California Black Media

vii. Media Guild of the West

d. Funds allocated by board to be distributed by claims administrator

e. 12% of funding reserved for locally focused publications and publications targeting underrepresented groups

f. The function of the board will be to validate the distribution formula based on the number of journalists per publication. Funds to be distributed to eligible organizations by dividing the number of eligible journalism positions or

freelancers of each organization by the total number of overall eligible positions multiplied by the total eligible amount in the fund consistent with the current language of AB886. The board will have no other discretion relative o the distribution of funds.

g. The definition of a journalist does not include broadcasters

6. Additional State Support:

a. California will work with its departments on plans to prioritize state government advertising in local publications and publications in underserved markets, with the goal of redirecting millions in advertising dollars.

Erin Ivie, Director of Communications, Office of Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Steven Harmon, Communications Director for the Office of State Senator Steve Glazer contributed to this report.