Public funding for local journalism gets traction
The idea of public funding for local journalism has just gained new momentum after the California legislature, in the United States, approved two bills providing financial support for the production and distribution of news. The decision by Californian legislators marks a new stage in the long-running controversy over the future sustainability of journalism, especially the one practised in small and medium-sized cities.
Two financial funds, totalling $250 million, will be created with resources from the state’s public budget, that is, money coming from taxes and, therefore, from taxpayers, and from Google, which, for the first time, is joining a government initiative to fund journalistic projects.
One project, the News Transformation Fund, worth $125 million, is intended to subsidize the operation of large and small news companies. Google is contributing $55 million and the Californian government will allocate the remainder of the funds (US$70 million). The second project, the National AI Innovation Accelerator, aims to stimulate the development of artificial intelligence applications for use in journalism. The funds could be enlarged if other technology companies join the effort.
The News Transformation Fund will be administered by the University of California (Berkeley) School of Journalism and will be distributed over 5 years based on the number of journalists per newsroom, 12% of whom must be dedicated to covering local and hyperlocal issues. TV stations will not receive money from the fund. The National AI Innovation Accelerator will receive $62.5 million from Google and the remainder from state foundations supporting scientific research in California.
Pros and cons
The two programs for funding journalistic activities in California have been criticized by labor organizations and consumer rights advocates. The main criticisms focused on the fact that Google avoided lawsuits demanding the payment of compensation for the use of journalistic material in its digital platform. A research carried out by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a project at Columbia University, in partnership with consultants from the Brattle Group, has estimated the amount ranging from 10 to 12 billion dollars due by Google to the mainstream media in the US.
There was also much criticism of the fact that the companies Meta (owner of the Facebook platform) and Amazon (e-commerce) did not join the projects, despite making billions of dollars from information obtained free of charge from their users. On the other hand, the entities that bring together owners of large journalistic companies strongly supported both projects. This is an important change in the position of the large news media groups, which until now were radically against any type of government participation in private business.
The controversy over public funding for the press and journalistic projects will yet continue for some time because everything indicates that there will be no single model for the financial crisis in the conventional media caused by the migration of advertising to the digital environment. Experts in digital media and local journalism, such as Jeff Jarvis and academic researcher Nikki Usher, both from the United States, agree that the biggest challenge facing journalists is not rebuilding a model in crisis, but rethinking journalism from the perspective of the digital age.
Jeff Jarvis, author of a book about Google, admits that the Californian projects are a step forward in solving the crisis in journalistic production, which, according to him, is caused by a failed system of producing news commercially. He also emphasizes that it is necessary to explore more inclusive and diverse ways of practicing journalism. Professor Nikki Usher, on the other hand, believes that the real problem is not recovering a model that no longer meets the information needs of the population, but investing in local information, which, in her opinion, is the best way to set up a solid relationship between citizens and journalists.
The California case shows the growing global trend toward transforming journalism into a public function, given the inability of the commercial model to meet people’s growing demand for more information. The main problem is not to fix the irremediable, but to plan the future sustainability of journalism based on a partnership between the most dynamic sector of the contemporary economy, technology, and public investment.
