Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Should Tech Giants Have to Pay California Newspapers for Their Content?
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 3 months ago on
August 10, 2024

California lawmakers consider controversial bill requiring tech giants to pay newspapers for content. (CalMatters/Martin do Nascimento)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

When I began my journalism career 64 years ago, newspapers were virtual licenses to print money because they were the dominant medium for advertising retail businesses such as supermarkets and department stores and the larger public via classified ads.

Dan Walters Profile Picture

Dan Walters

CalMatters

Opinion

During the 1990s, however, the internet popped up.

At first, newspaper owners were pleased that their content was being republished by other websites. When they blossomed into large corporations selling ads, they became powerful competitors. Classified ads, page for page the most profitable form of advertising, also largely vanished. They were unable to compete with free websites such as Craigslist.

Meanwhile, the retail businesses that had been the backbone of newspaper finances also found themselves competing with online sellers such as Amazon.

The Decline of Traditional Newspapers

All of these trends clobbered the newspaper business. By the turn of the century, some papers were shutting down and survivors were shrinking as circulation and ad revenue dried up.

What happened to the Los Angeles Times, California’s largest newspaper, encapsulates the decline. In the early 1990s, the LA Times had a huge staff of journalists and was selling more than a million papers each day. As circulation and ad income contracted, however, the Times also shrank and underwent a couple of ownership changes before being purchased in 2018 by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a wealthy Southern California physician.

Soon-Shiong pumped new money into the Times, which expanded its staff and made a valiant attempt to recapture past glory. Eventually, however, it once again shrank as its owner grew tired of covering $40 million in annual losses.

Last March, the Times printed an article about the shutdown of its downtown printing plant. Its last print run was 100,000 copies, less than a tenth of its peak three decades earlier. The paper is now being printed by another company.

The contraction is very evident in coverage of the state Capitol. Even small California newspapers once had reporters in Sacramento, but today only a few papers, including the Times and the Sacramento Bee, have Capitol bureaus.

In fact, CalMatters, my employer, was founded nine years ago specifically to fill the widening gap in Capitol coverage and has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, providing its prodigious output free of charge to anyone who wants it, including surviving newspapers.

The Controversial Assembly Bill 886

This journalistic history frames one of the Capitol’s most controversial issues in the final weeks of its 2024 session: legislation aiming to compel Google and Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, to pay newspapers for their content and require most of the money to be used to pay journalists.

Assembly Bill 886 would emulate a Canadian law that has generated about $75 million in annual payments to newspapers, but is being fiercely contested by the two tech giants. They’ve launched an ad campaign against the bill and threatened to stop republishing newspaper stories.

Concerns About the Proposed Legislation

As much as I lament what’s happened to the newspaper business, I have qualms about AB 886, which is now pending in the Senate after clearing the Assembly.

I don’t like newspaper finances being beholden to politicians, no matter how benign their motives. I don’t like that publishers could potentially comply with the bill’s employment mandate without actually hiring more journalists. I’m concerned that the bill is, as the Electronic Frontier Federation suggests, unconstitutional because it forces corporations to give money to other corporations.

Maybe the newspaper, as we have known it, is as obsolete as the buggy whip. Maybe newspaper owners should just concentrate on building their online presence. Maybe CalMatters and other independent websites are the legitimate future of journalism.

Disclosure: CalMatters CEO Neil Chase formally opposed AB 886 as it was introduced last year. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the organization, newsroom or its staff.

About the Author

Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more columns by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

Make Your Voice Heard

GV Wire encourages vigorous debate from people and organizations on local, state, and national issues. Submit your op-ed to bmcewen@gvwire.com for consideration.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Trump Says Musk, Vivek Will Form Outside Group to Advise White House on Government Efficiency

DON'T MISS

Fate of Clovis Trustee Race Still Up in the Air. So Are Clovis, Sanger School Bond Measures.

DON'T MISS

Richardson Widens Lead Over Bonakdar in Nail-Biting Race for Fresno City Council

DON'T MISS

What to Know About John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Pick for CIA Director

DON'T MISS

Here Are the People Trump Has Picked for Key Positions So Far

DON'T MISS

Waymo’s Robotaxis Now Open to Anyone Who Wants a Driverless Ride in Los Angeles

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Man Accused of Filing Fake Disability Claims in $300K Fraud Scheme

DON'T MISS

Trump Nominates Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

DON'T MISS

Economists Warn of Inflation and Debt Risks in Trump’s Second Term Plans

DON'T MISS

How Many Smoke Shops Is Too Many? Fresno Plan Would Allow Only 49

UP NEXT

Fate of Clovis Trustee Race Still Up in the Air. So Are Clovis, Sanger School Bond Measures.

UP NEXT

Richardson Widens Lead Over Bonakdar in Nail-Biting Race for Fresno City Council

UP NEXT

What to Know About John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Pick for CIA Director

UP NEXT

Here Are the People Trump Has Picked for Key Positions So Far

UP NEXT

Waymo’s Robotaxis Now Open to Anyone Who Wants a Driverless Ride in Los Angeles

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Accused of Filing Fake Disability Claims in $300K Fraud Scheme

UP NEXT

Trump Nominates Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

UP NEXT

Economists Warn of Inflation and Debt Risks in Trump’s Second Term Plans

UP NEXT

How Many Smoke Shops Is Too Many? Fresno Plan Would Allow Only 49

UP NEXT

US Says It Will Not Limit Israel Arms Transfers After Some Improvements in Flow of Aid to Gaza

What to Know About John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Pick for CIA Director

9 hours ago

Here Are the People Trump Has Picked for Key Positions So Far

9 hours ago

Waymo’s Robotaxis Now Open to Anyone Who Wants a Driverless Ride in Los Angeles

10 hours ago

Fresno County Man Accused of Filing Fake Disability Claims in $300K Fraud Scheme

10 hours ago

Trump Nominates Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

10 hours ago

Economists Warn of Inflation and Debt Risks in Trump’s Second Term Plans

10 hours ago

How Many Smoke Shops Is Too Many? Fresno Plan Would Allow Only 49

10 hours ago

US Says It Will Not Limit Israel Arms Transfers After Some Improvements in Flow of Aid to Gaza

10 hours ago

Who With Valley Ties Could Land Spots in the Trump Administration?

11 hours ago

Tulare Gang Member Gets Life Without Parole for 2022 Murders

12 hours ago

Trump Says Musk, Vivek Will Form Outside Group to Advise White House on Government Efficiency

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “D...

9 hours ago

9 hours ago

Trump Says Musk, Vivek Will Form Outside Group to Advise White House on Government Efficiency

9 hours ago

Fate of Clovis Trustee Race Still Up in the Air. So Are Clovis, Sanger School Bond Measures.

9 hours ago

Richardson Widens Lead Over Bonakdar in Nail-Biting Race for Fresno City Council

9 hours ago

What to Know About John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Pick for CIA Director

9 hours ago

Here Are the People Trump Has Picked for Key Positions So Far

10 hours ago

Waymo’s Robotaxis Now Open to Anyone Who Wants a Driverless Ride in Los Angeles

A Fresno County man has been indicted on mail fraud charges for allegedly submitting over $300,000 in falsified disability claims using stolen identities. (GV Wire File)
10 hours ago

Fresno County Man Accused of Filing Fake Disability Claims in $300K Fraud Scheme

Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP File)
10 hours ago

Trump Nominates Fox News Host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary

Search

Send this to a friend