Guest commentary written by
Laura Rearwin Ward
Laura Rearwin Ward is publisher of the Ojai Valley News and Ventura County Sun.
A federal district court in Washington DC ruled last week that Google violated the law through its monopoly over general search services and advertising.
Two bills currently before the California legislature aim to repair the damage this monopoly has done to the journalism sector. California Assembly Bill 886, the California Journalism Preservation Act, would create a solution to Google’s search violations, and Senate Bill 1327 proposes a solution to its unfair advertising advantage.
In response to both bills, Google launched an aggressive advertising campaign, warning the public that if the Journalism Preservation Act was passed and the news sector’s finances were restored, the company would remove news from its search engine in California.
Meta, operator of Facebook and Instagram, has already made good on this threat in Canada.
Senator Steven Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda, raised the alarm about Big Tech in California and authored SB 1327 to revive local journalism, calling it the most important legislation of his career. Glazer calls the unfair profit advantages gained by Google, Amazon and Meta a “second gold rush” in California.
These mega-platforms have unfairly used consumer data to profit from and control advertising markets. The advantage these platforms have gained has come at the expense of newsrooms that rely on advertising revenue. This has contributed to a growing number of journalists losing their jobs over the past decade as newspapers have shrunk, merged or closed down entirely.
SB 1327 would provide sustainability to journalism while supporting California schools by imposing a 7.25% data extraction mitigation fee on platforms with more than $2.5 billion in advertising revenue (Google made $26 billion in revenue-shared advertising in 2021). $500 million per capita would be distributed to companies that employ journalists in our state and $400 million to California schools.
That money for reporting without fear or favor would make a critical difference for independent newspapers like the Ojai Valley News and the Ventura County Sun, the largest local news organization in Ventura County. It’s sad but true that five reporters with a mountain of chutzpah cover the 350,000 people in the western part of the county, and very often the rest of Ventura County, for no profit to the owners and on a shoestring budget.
Learn more about the lawmakers mentioned in this story.
What was once a bustling hive of news coverage and a wealth of information about California’s communities is rapidly turning into dried crusts of government press releases distributed by ghost newspapers or skeleton teams of a few small newspapers whose survival depends largely on the efforts of mission-oriented staffers.
Freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment and is considered an essential check on government power. It is a right worth fighting for.
The big tech companies don’t shed a tear for democracy or for plundering newsrooms. These companies have gotten away with unprecedented control and profit-taking and clearly have the goal of controlling the reporting itself.
Not only has Google disabled news search, but it has also threatened to shut down nonprofit news coverage (another hammer in its toolbox). The Big Tech flag colors are flying and we’re seeing the teeth underneath.
The tech industry’s dirty tactics include lobbyists applying pressure in Sacramento, spreading false stories to scare local businesses into believing that digital ad prices would suddenly be tied to Google’s profit margins, and bombarding the public with fear-mongering ads. Their latest authoritarian maneuver is the threat that Google will shut down news search.
We should heed the warnings of this out-of-control sector.
It’s time for our lawmakers to rein in Big Tech and support SB 1327 and AB 886. If not now, when?
CalMatters CEO Neil Chase officially opposed AB 886 when it was introduced last year. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the organization, its editorial board, or its staff.
