Google announced last Friday that it will remove links to California news websites from the search results of some users, as the company continues to oppose a forthcoming California law that requires Google to pay fees to publishers.
According to a report by KTLA, in a blog post released on the 12th, the search giant stated that the “California Journalism Preservation Act” (CJPA) will change its business model.
If signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom, the bill will require tech companies like Google to pay “news usage fees” to news organizations when selling advertisements alongside news content.
“We have long said that this is a misguided approach to supporting journalism. If passed, the California Journalism Preservation Act could lead to significant changes in the services we provide to Californians and the traffic we send to California publishers,” wrote Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s Vice President of Global News Partnerships, in the blog post.
In addition, Google also announced a pause in further investment in the California news ecosystem, including establishing new partnerships through Google News Showcase, a product and licensing program for news organizations, and expanding the Google News Initiative.
Google has partnered with “over 7,000 news publishers worldwide, including 200 news organizations and 6,000 journalists in California alone,” to implement the Google News Initiative, which provides grants and training for journalists to use digital tools.
However, Zaidi’s blog noted that expansion efforts have been suspended “until there is clarity on the regulatory environment in California.”
“By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes increase their audience for free,” Zaidi wrote. “The California Journalism Preservation Act will disrupt this model.”
Many news media rely on traffic from Google and Facebook to distribute news but are subject to the algorithms of these companies.
Publishers such as the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, have laid off a large number of employees, partly due to the decline in print news and reduced revenue from advertising.
Supporters of the California Journalism Preservation Act say it will create a level playing field for news organizations striving to reach digital audiences. Critics, including Google, argue that the law will benefit major media conglomerates and hedge funds, putting smaller media at a disadvantage.
Furthermore, Zaidi shared that now only 2% of searches on Google are related to news, as many people now obtain news from short videos, newsletters, social media, and curated podcasts, or completely avoid the news industry altogether.