It’s time for the search large and different on-line platforms to begin paying for the journalism they applicable. In California, it’s time for state lawmakers to insist on it.
Sadly, what we’ve witnessed over the previous two years are state legislators and a governor who give lip service to saving journalism however are unwilling to face as much as Google’s $11 million lobbying effort.
The outcome has been crumbs thrown our approach whereas Google continues pilfering. And, as we’ve seen through the present finances cycle in Sacramento, even tiny previous funding guarantees rapidly shrink.
The reply is just not a public handout. That’s not what we’re looking for. The reply is to make on-line platforms pay us for our work product that they use.
Two payments within the Legislature final 12 months sought to try this in several methods:
That was final 12 months. Since then, the governor and state legislators have discovered themselves confronting a decent finances for the upcoming fiscal 12 months and the journalism faculty has bowed out.
And, as soon as the state reduce its contribution, so too did Google, highlighting that the search large gained’t make significant commitments except it’s compelled to.
So, in a 12 months, we’ve gone from two considerate payments to a meager deal to 1 laden with battle that fails to carry Google accountable. It’s time for state lawmakers to step again and begin over. And it’s time for the governor to get on board.
