California can do better than the world’s worst Google news deal
The following bulletin was sent to Media Guild of the West members on Jan. 6, 2025:
Media Guild of the West members,
This morning, we sent a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders suggesting an overhaul of last year's proposed deal with Google to fund local journalism jobs. In his incoming budget proposal, Newsom is expected to outline what that deal might actually look like in practice for our newsrooms.
We think California can do better than the world’s worst Google news deal, which was almost universally condemned by California’s journalist membership organizations when first outlined a few months ago.
In this morning’s letter, Media Guild of the West submitted six recommendations for how state leaders can create a journalism jobs program that — in Governor Newsom’s words — “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.”
The Guild’s proposals:
Recommendation 1: Impose a Contribution Incentive encouraging multiple Big Tech companies to donate to the Journalism Fund in lieu of allocating public dollars.
Recommendation 2: Any public funds appropriated to large and corporate-owned news employers via the Journalism Fund must come with fair-labor requirements.
Recommendation 3: Publishers receiving funds should not control a majority of votes on the Journalism Fund’s 501(c)3 board.
Recommendation 4: Public media should be included, not excluded, for subsidy.
Recommendation 5: Eligibility requirements should be eased for startup journalist worker cooperatives.
Recommendation 6: California must remove itself and the Journalism Fund from involvement with Google’s National AI Accelerator.
You can read more detail about each of these recommendations here.
In solidarity,
Matt Pearce
President, Media Guild of the West
The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213
president@mediaguildwest.org
###
Media Guild of the West is a local union of The NewsGuild-CWA founded in 2019 that represents journalists and news workers in the Greater Southwest. Guild members work at the Arizona Republic, Austin-American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Desert Sun, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Landing, Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, Long Beach Watchdog, Los Angeles Times, Phoenix New Times, San Antonio Report, Southern California News Group and Texas Tribune.