The world’s most popular search engine is making searching for news a lot harder.
As of April 12, Google has been testing removing California news sources from searches in response to Assembly Bill 866, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA). The bill, if signed into law, requires social media companies such as Google and Meta to pay a “link tax” for the revenue they generate from advertising on news websites.
In turn, large news companies must allocate 70 percent of the funds received for paying journalists and other staff. Small news companies must allocate 50 percent, according to the California state legislature.
The act intends to introduce more jobs in journalism, combating the shrinking number of journalists as print newspapers dwindle. The current version of the bill indicates that newsroom staff have reduced by 44 percent in the past 10 years.
Google’s justification for opposing the bill is that CJPA harms local journalism by limiting exposure to smaller news organizations in searches.
But this argument has a hole. No one is forcing Google to censor these links.
For a long time, tech companies have seen ad revenue as a quid pro quo for providing news companies with more readers, but they have had the better end of the bargain. With CJPA, that advantage will diminish.
This effect is clearer when looking at the numbers. In the last quarter of 2023, Google’s ad revenue totaled more than $65 billion, according to CNBC. Compare this amount to a recent study from the Center for Economic Policy that estimated that “the tech platforms [Google and Meta] owe between $11.9 and $13.9 billion to US news publishers annually.”
Big Tech isn’t rescuing local journalism. They’re killing it all in the name of profits.
The study’s suggested journalism usage fee consists less than 10 percent of Google’s annual ad revenue. Jaffer Zaidi, Google vice president for global news partnerships, has raised concerns about CJPA perpetuating news written by “skeleton crews.” But in restricting news, social media companies are contributing to the problem.
It’s true that smaller news organizations may suffer if Google follows through with their scare tactic of removing California news sources. But that’s also why CJPA is important.
To some extent, it takes money out of Google’s hands and gives news companies a little more agency. It keeps journalists writing and the public reading, delaying a future where news isn’t information at people’s fingertips, but merely another source of revenue.