The News/Media Alliance, a journalism trade group and advocacy group, on Tuesday called the tech giant to federal officials after the company announced it would restrict links to California news organizations in search results. They requested an investigation.
The coalition, which represents publishers in the news and magazine industry, said Google’s actions “appear to be coercive or retaliatory, stemming from Google’s opposition to the bill pending in Sacramento.” .
The state bill in question, known as the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA), would require tech companies like Google to pay news publishers for advertising along with news content.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, News/Media Alliance CEO Daniel Coffey urged regulators to “find the news that Google relies on for its business.” We called for an investigation into whether we are blocking or interfering with their ability to thrive, their joy, their democracy, and sometimes their lives.”
The LA Times is a member of the News/Media Alliance.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FTC and Justice Department declined to comment.
Google announced Friday that it would begin testing to restrict some users’ access to links from California news organizations, and expressed concerns about the bill in a blog post, saying it would change its business model. .
“We have long argued that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism,” Jafar Zaidi, Google’s vice president of global news partnerships, said in a blog post Friday. “If passed, the CJPA could result in significant changes in the services we can provide to Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”
But California news outlets say they are dealing with declining revenue and struggling to build a digital subscriber base, due in part to a digital advertising market dominated by companies like Google. Many news organizations, including the LA Times, Business Insider, and Vice, have laid off staff to cut costs.
Under the bill, news organizations would pay at least 70% of the money they receive from the bill to their own staff. Smaller dealers may pay a lower percentage.
Google said it partners with more than 7,000 global news publishers through the Google News Initiative, including 6,000 journalists in California, but Zaidi said the company believes that “California’s regulatory environment is clear. It said it would pause expansion of its efforts until the end of 2020.
During a news event with visiting Norwegian officials in the Bay Area on Tuesday, a reporter asked Gov. Gavin Newsom if he had any reaction to Google removing California news links.
“How best to put it?” Newsom said. “We are negotiating with the company you introduced. Let’s leave it at that.”
Newsom has not yet taken a position on the California Journalism Protection Act. Although there are some exceptions, it is common for the governor to refrain from publicly sharing his position on a bill before it reaches his desk. A spokesperson for the governor said Newsom is consulting with lawmakers about the bill.
“The governor continues to have a constructive dialogue with the Legislature on this important topic,” said Izzy Gordon, the governor’s press secretary.
Rep. Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who introduced Assembly Bill 886, met with Newsom’s staff last week and “had a very constructive conversation about AB 886,” Wicks spokeswoman Erin Ivey said.
