1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to fully fund the California Civic Media Fund as originally promised. In August 2024, Governor Newsom announced a $175 million deal with Google to support local journalism over five years, calling it a "major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms." The state committed $70 million and Google pledged $55 million. However, Newsom's latest budget proposal includes no new funding beyond the initial $10 million for fiscal year 2025-26. Google has stated it will contribute no more money without state funding. This broken promise comes as California's journalism crisis deepens. Between 2013 and 2024, the number of newspaper journalists in California dropped by more than half. California now has just 1.5 news outlets per 100,000 residents, ranking 45th among all states and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, tech companies continue profiting enormously from news content. A 2019 News Media Alliance study estimated Google made $4.7 billion from news sites in 2018. These companies can afford to support the journalism they monetize. Former state Senator Steve Glazer noted that even the full Google deal amount may not be enough to "arrest the collapse of independent community news in California." I urge you to honor the full five-year commitment to the California Civic Media Fund and to pass legislation requiring Google, Meta, and other social media companies to pay for the journalism content they use. These companies broke local journalism through their business practices. They should pay to fix it. Independent journalism is essential to our democracy.