The big hands of Google continue undermining local journalism, reaping billions of dollars in windfall profits off the backs of news organizations by lifting our work product without compensation.

It’s time for the search giant and other online platforms to start paying for the journalism they appropriate. In California, it’s time for state lawmakers to insist on it.

Search online for news stories and Google will give you back summaries or AI-generated accounts compiled from our reporting. But the company is not paying us for it. Not a cut of the advertising it is selling nor the profits from the personal data it is gathering from you, all using our material as bait to lure you in.

The theft fattens Google’s bottom line while leading to the financial destruction of desperately needed news outlets. At a time of national disinformation campaigns, as politics trumps truth, reliable news sources are needed more than ever. But we’re headed in the wrong direction.

Over the past two decades, more than 3,200 print newspapers have closed in the United States. And more than 60% of newsroom jobs have been eliminated. California alone has lost over 100 newspapers in the last decade, cutting off a flow of information critical for the survival of local democracy.

Sadly, what we’ve witnessed over the past two years are state legislators and a governor who give lip service to saving journalism but are unwilling to stand up to Google’s $11 million lobbying effort.

The result has been crumbs thrown our way while Google continues pilfering. And, as we’ve seen during the current budget cycle in Sacramento, even tiny past funding promises quickly shrink.

The answer is not a public handout. That’s not what we’re seeking. The answer is to make online platforms pay us for our work product that they use.

Two bills in the Legislature last year sought to do that in different ways:

AB 886, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would have required online platforms such as Google and Meta to pay a fee when they sell advertising alongside news content. The money would have gone into a fund for California news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ.

SB 1327, authored by then-Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, would have taxed large tech firms on the user data they collect for advertising purposes and then used the revenues to support tax credits for news publications to hire journalists.

Both would have paid for themselves without burdening the state budget. And the Wicks bill seemed to be gaining traction. But then Gov. Newsom, apparently unwilling to take on Google in the interest of preserving journalism, sent word that he would not support the bills.

Instead, a handshake deal was struck that involved the state and Google contributing roughly matching, but much smaller, amounts to a fund established at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism to support newsrooms.

That was last year. Since then, the governor and state legislators have found themselves confronting a tight budget for the upcoming fiscal year and the journalism school has bowed out.

Newsom’s proposed budget now puts $10 million toward the deal for the 2025-26 fiscal year, one-third of the state share agreed to last year, and oversight would be placed in the hands of the state librarian, who reports to the governor. So much for independent oversight.

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And, once the state cut its contribution, so too did Google, highlighting that the search giant won’t make meaningful commitments unless it’s compelled to.

So, in a year, we’ve gone from two thoughtful bills to a meager deal to one laden with conflict that fails to hold Google accountable. It’s time for state lawmakers to step back and start over. And it’s time for the governor to get on board.

For the sake of local journalism, for the sake of the free flow of news in a functioning democracy, California lawmakers must stop Google from ripping off and undermining news organizations.