Google’s new deal with California lawmakers will pay newsrooms across the state up to $250 million over the next five years, while also helping the tech giant avoid an even bigger bill. The first-in-the-nation agreement, funded by taxpayers, Google, and potentially other private sources, allows the search giant to evade a proposed state bill that would force it to pay for linking Californians to news articles.
The money will be split between two initiatives administered by the “News Transformation Fund” at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. According to Politico, $180 million is set for distribution to Californian news outlets (excluding broadcasters), while the remaining $70 million is earmarked for artificial intelligence…