California Governor Gavin Newsom, pictured above center, endorsed the proposal (file) | Photo credit: REUTERS

California will become the first U.S. state to provide millions of taxpayer dollars and money from technology companies to fund journalism and AI research under a new agreement announced Wednesday.

Under the first-in-the-nation agreement, the state and the tech companies would pay a combined $250 million over five years to support California-based news organizations and build an AI research program. The initiatives are set to begin in 2025 with $100 million in the first year, and the bulk of the money would go to news organizations, said Buffy Wicks, a Democratic state Rep. who brokered the deal.

“This agreement represents a major breakthrough to ensure the survival of newsrooms and strengthen local journalism across California — by leveraging significant technology industry resources without imposing new taxes on Californians,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “The deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists, but also helps rebuild a robust and vibrant California press corps for years to come and strengthens the important role of journalism in our democracy.”

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Wicks’ office did not initially answer questions about the exact amount of funding that would come from the state, the news organizations that would be eligible and the amount of money that would go into the AI ​​research program.

The deal effectively marks the end of a years-long battle between tech giants and lawmakers over Wicks’ proposal to require companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a percentage of their advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content.

The bill, modeled on a Canadian bill to provide financial support to local news organizations, has drawn fierce criticism from the tech industry, which launched ads against the bill over the summer. Google also tried to pressure lawmakers to withdraw the bill by temporarily removing news websites from some users’ search results in April.

“This partnership represents a cross-industry commitment to support a free and vibrant press and enables local news organizations across the state to continue their important work,” Wicks said in a statement. “This is just the beginning.”

California has tried in several ways to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which are disappearing rapidly as traditional media companies struggle to make a profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. According to Wicks’ office, California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade.

Wednesday’s agreement is supported by the California News Publishers Association, which represents more than 700 news organizations, as well as Google’s parent company Alphabet and OpenAI. But journalists, including those at the Media Guild of the West, sharply criticized the deal, saying it would hurt California news organizations.

State Senator Steve Glazer, who authored a bill that would give news organizations tax breaks for hiring full-time journalists, said the agreement “seriously undermines our work on a long-term solution to save independent journalism.”

Acting State Senate President Mike McGuire also said the agreement does not go far enough to improve the dire situation in California.

“Newsrooms in this state have been hollowed out while tech platforms have reaped billions of dollars in profits,” he said in a statement. “We fear this proposal does not provide enough funding for newspapers and local media and does not fully address the inequities facing the industry.”