Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s budget proposal includes no money for a fund formed last year to boost the state\u2019s local newsrooms, casting doubt on whether a heralded effort to help California journalists will amount to anything and how serious Newsom is about supporting the struggling industry.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a significant walkback from an August 2024 deal between state leaders and Google in which they agreed to jointly spend $175 million over five years to fund local journalism.<\/p>\n
The deal, which Newsom hailed as<\/a> a \u201cmajor breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms\u201d at the time, was reached after Google spent a record sum<\/a> \u2014 $11 million \u2014 lobbying state lawmakers successfully to drop two proposals that would have forced Google to pay newsrooms for using their content.<\/p>\n Under the agreement, the state would pay $70 million and Google $55 million into the newly established California Civic Media Fund for local news outlets. Google would also continue issuing its annual $10 million newsroom grants.<\/p>\n But in May 2025,<\/a> citing budget restraints, Newsom slashed the state\u2019s first-year commitment to just $10 million for fiscal year 2025-26, with no future state funding guaranteed. Google subsequently<\/a> said it would match the state\u2019s $10 million investment but no more.<\/p>\n Google was clear in the deal that \u201cits contributions were contingent\u201d on state funding, similar to its journalism funding deal in Canada, said Erin Ivie, spokesperson for Assemblymember Buffy Wicks<\/a>, an Oakland Democrat who brokered the deal in 2024.<\/p>\n A 2019 study by the trade group News Media Alliance estimated that Google made $4.7 billion from news sites in 2018<\/a>. Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, made over $100 billion in the third quarter of 2025 alone<\/a> \u2014 its \u201cfirst ever $100 billion quarter,\u201d said Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. By Wednesday, Alphabet\u2019s market cap was over $4 trillion.<\/p>\n None of the $20 million pledged has reached local news outlets, drawing disappointment from journalism advocates.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point right now, nobody should be jumping up and down and getting excited,\u201d California News Publishers Association President Chuck Champion said.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s lack of proposed funding for future years angered Champion, who said the governor failed to keep his promise.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s more interested in the billionaires and his friends than he\u2019s interested in journalists who are out on the street,\u201d Champion said. \u201cHe talks about democracy, he talks about how critically important it is, and then he allows our journalists to starve on the vine.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of future commitment from the state also raises the question whether Google will deposit anything into the fund next year. Google News Initiative did not immediately respond to a CalMatters inquiry for comment.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s office did not respond to questions about his decision to skip the funding this year, directing CalMatters to the state Department of Finance and the California Governor\u2019s Office of Business and Economic Development, which administers the funds.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no going back on the deal,\u201d Department of Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw stressed to reporters during a budget briefing last week, saying that the state has already contributed the $10 million promised last year.<\/p>\n Wicks said budget restraints forced Newsom\u2019s hand last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you saw last year was the budget being what it was,\u201d she said. \u201cPrograms across the board got cut and sliced, either got completely zeroed out or significantly reduced, and this is no different.\u201d<\/p>\n But she said she will fight for more funding.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been operating on the assumption that (the state) will honor the multiyear commitment,\u201d Wicks said.<\/p>\n But even the full amount of the Google deal may not be enough to \u201carrest the collapse of independent community news in California,\u201d said former state Sen. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat who authored a bill that would have offered tax credits<\/a> to employers of journalists by charging a fee to platforms like Google.<\/p>\n \u201cLeaders can\u2019t just talk about protecting our democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cThey need to act to direct the resources to support independent news reporting that provides the oversight and accountability of our democratic institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n The journalism industry nationwide has been diminishing. Between 2005 and 2024, more than 3,200 newspapers shut their doors, according to a 2024 report<\/a> by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n As of that year, California had 1.5 news outlets for every 100,000 residents, ranking 45th among all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Between 2013 and 2024, the number of newspaper journalists in California dropped by more than half.<\/p>\n To make matters worse, Congress last year voted to strip public broadcast stations nationwide of federal funding, putting dozens of stations across California<\/a> in peril. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a national nonprofit that has funded public media since 1967, announced its dissolution due to the funding cuts last week.<\/p>\n