Google pays millions to media in California
A California law was intended to require internet companies to make payments to regional media companies. Instead, there are now voluntary payments totaling millions from Google—and the state.
Google has averted a bill in the US state of California that would have required internet companies to pay levies to local media companies by pledging millions of dollars in payments. The agreement will see almost 250 million dollars invested in journalism over the next five years, according to the bill's initiator, California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks. The money is to come not only from Google, but also from the state.
The legislative initiative was modeled on laws in Canada and Australia. Regional media in the USA in particular are struggling with falling advertising revenues, while advertising dollars are migrating online - to Google and the Facebook group Meta, among others. Wicks pointed out that more than 100 newspapers have disappeared in California alone in the past decade.
According to Wicks' office, Google will pay $15 million in the first year to a new fund at Berkeley University, $5 million to an AI project and $10 million to existing journalism programs, the newspaper reported Mercury News. Payments of 20 million dollars are planned for each of the next four years.
The state of California will pay 30 million dollars in the first year and 10 million dollars in each of the following years into the UC Berkeley journalism fund. It initially remained unclear what other amounts make up the total of almost 250 million dollars. (SDA)
