California Senate Committee Advances Journalism Bill 9-2

California’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-2 Tuesday to advance a bill that would force tech platforms to pay news publishers for the news content they carry, similar to approaches seen in Australia, Canada and Europe.

The California Assembly passed the California Journalism Preservation Act (AB-886) in 2023, but the Senate failed to do the same. With Tuesday’s passage, the bill is up for Senate Appropriations Committee consideration.

NAB and the News/Media Alliance support AB-886. Representatives from the San Fernando Valley Sun and the Media Guild of the West spoke in support at Tuesday’s markup. The Computer & Communications Industry Association, NetChoice, TechNet, Chamber of Progress and California’s American Civil Liberties Union are opposed. A Google representative spoke in opposition at Tuesday’s session.

Tech platforms reap the benefits of advertising revenue when carrying news content, but they don’t provide adequate compensation, said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D), who introduced the bill. She cited a Northwestern University study published in 2023 that found an average of 2.5 newspapers close in the U.S. every week. The U.S. has lost two-thirds of newspaper journalists since 2005, while tech platform advertising revenue has ballooned, she said. Sen. Steve Glazer (D), lead sponsor in the Senate, noted that AI technology, which delivers search results to internet users without the need to visit news sites, is helping drive the decline of local journalism. The rise of AI is “directly responsible for the death of local news,” San Fernando Valley Sun publisher Martha Aszkenazy said.

The demise of credible journalism affects democracy, and legislators need to find a way to help local journalists survive, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Thomas Umberg (D) said. This is a “big and very, very complicated issue,” he added. Umberg indicated he’s open to finding a better resolution with opponents.

Vice Chair Scott Wilk (R) and Roger Niello (R) voted against the bill. Niello said his initial concern is the conflict of interest that will arise if newsrooms rely on payment from an industry they’re supposed to independently cover. In addition, he said news publishers were facing financial struggles before social media's rise, and their business decisions in a rapidly evolving market are partly to blame for news' demise, he said. Niello noted that hedge funds and individual investors own more than 50% of U.S. dailies, which, he said, makes him question who actually benefits from the proposed legislation.

News/Media Alliance CEO Danielle Coffey said in a statement Tuesday: Big Tech has “reaped windfall profits at the expense of the local publications that go into our communities and hold government and other institutions to account. We look forward to publishers in California finally getting the compensation they need and deserve to be able to continue their critically important work."

NAB in a statement Wednesday called the committee vote a "positive step towards addressing the unfair advantage Big Tech platforms have over local news producers. This legislation highlights the crucial need for fair compensation for the substantial investment required to produce quality journalism, and we commend the efforts to ensure that local news remains a vital and sustainable part of our communities.”