Without that news coverage, there’s a less-informed electorate and more opportunity for public corruption
Imagine you are a pie-maker. You buy the cherries, sugar, flour and other ingredients. You rent space for your industrial kitchen and purchase ovens. You hire bakers. And after your pies are ready, the only grocery store in the area sells them. And keeps the money.
That is a simplified analogy of the story of local journalism today. We’re the pie-makers, and Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are the grocery stores. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but, essentially, they’re taking our news product, putting it on their sites and selling advertising with it. And reaping the profits.
Which helps explain why local news operations across California and the nation are struggling to survive. And why California has lost over 100 newspapers in the last decade. It’s time for state lawmakers to change this paradigm — to make Big Tech pay for the journalism it’s using to drive its advertising.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, is trying to ensure that happens in California.
