AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Google will soon contribute more than $100 million to support local journalism jobs in California. It's part of a deal reached between the tech giant and state lawmakers, but very few journalists are celebrating, as NPR's Bobby Allyn explains.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: There were such high hopes. Lawmakers have been debating for years a proposal to force Google to share advertising profits with news organizations. That's because Big Tech has been reaping billions of dollars in advertising revenue as the news industry loses out. The bill had momentum, but then a backroom deal was suddenly announced. Google and California agreed to create a fund to support California journalists. It includes millions for developing AI tools. The legislation? - it was dropped.
ANYA SCHIFFRIN: Google is killing these kinds of regulations all over the world, and they use a combination of tactics.
ALLYN: That's Columbia University's Anya Schiffrin, and she's been studying Google's playbook in response to measures like this. Google circulates talking points about the legislation. They pit big publishers against smaller publishers. They hire an army of lawyers and lobbyists to attack the proposal.
SCHIFFRIN: I've spoken to regulators in several countries who've just told me it's absolutely exhausting.
ALLYN: Google wouldn't directly respond to questions about this strategy. The company did say the California deal, quote, "builds on our long history of working with journalism and the local news ecosystem in our home state." Some publishers have embraced the deal as a lifeline, but not the Media Guild of the West. It's a union representing thousands of journalists in California. They are not buying it.
The union says not a single news organization helped put the terms of the agreement together. To the union, lawmakers caved to Google's demands. Schiffrin, who co-wrote a paper called "Paying For News: What Google And Meta Owe U.S. Publishers," says unions have the right to be concerned.
SCHIFFRIN: Google, in the U.S., owes publishers $10 billion a year. In California, they should have been paying $1.4 billion a year.
ALLYN: Now, Google's not paying California newsrooms $1.4 billion a year, but the company says the deal does show it's investing in journalism. The company has long pointed out that publishers make money on advertising when Google directs people to websites. But Google is making money, too. Last year, Google's annual advertising revenue topped $230 billion. Bobby Allyn, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
