San José State has joined an informal proposal to be considered in a partnership that would involve a five-year investment plan from Google and the State of California to support local newsrooms.
Since the initial proposal was scratched, Google and the state have proposed an unofficial deal where Google would agree to support local media outlets. This comes after most readers have moved to social media to stay informed, according to an Aug. 21 2024 Cal Matters article.
Initially, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism was picked and would have served as a host of this partnership, but the school pulled out in January last month. Berkeley was concerned about not having the ability to know how the funds in the partnership would be allocated, according to Feb 5. Article from San José Spotlight.
John Delacruz, SJSU’s director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, shared a concern that was discussed when the California State University (CSU) was reached out by the state to apply for this opportunity.
“My concern was, you have an organization like Google that is a business with a business plan to continue making money. Google makes their money through advertising that relies on reading the algorithm,” Delacruz said. “So one of our big questions was can we trust that they will give the money to the right people?”
‘For this reason, Delacruz and along with other CSU journalism directors, have decided to input an informal proposal to ensure the money that is being provided is going back to the newsrooms and not to for-profit organizations.
A contributor to the proposal is Julie Patel Liss, who serves as an associate chair of journalism for California State University, Los Angeles.
“We met with the organizer at the state level and then also with a legislative leader and it was a great conversation,” Liss said. “I basically offered to organize a meeting with the CSU journalism chairs who are interested in helping me draft a proposal as kind of an informal pitch.”
While no specifics about what the proposal included were discussed, Liss said that there would be a huge responsibility that the CSUs would take on in evaluating the local newsrooms applying for these funds.
“We'd be responsible for developing criteria and some sort of a rubric to judge everything fairly. “We'd want to be very transparent about how everything is done and eventually, we'd also want to measure outcomes and success and see how this partnership helps our local community,” Liss said.
It is important to note that this proposal is still indefinite and no confirmation of whether this proposal will be accepted by Google or the State of California has been made.
“We don't get the financial benefit,” Delacruz said. “There are other organizations who are putting proposals in to look after this sum of money and we don't even know whether Google is going to backtrack on it. So it's all very much in the air.”
In the last 15 years in California, the number of newspaper reporters has decreased almost 60% with dedicated local journalism presence being close to none, according to Common Cause California.
Although the proposal has not been confirmed, Mariah Aragon, a third-year communications student at SJSU, is interested in seeing how this could benefit the local community if approved.
“This potential collaboration has the possibility to bridge the gap between a large corporation and small newsrooms allowing for more potential funding,” Aragon said. “In giving them the funds, it could help them continue researching and reporting on news that are relevant in their community and eventually in larger events like voting on policies.”
Although students and colleges are not the target audience for this potential funding according to Delacruz, his hope is that students are able to benefit as a byproduct through an increase of internship opportunities from these local newsrooms that would have more funding to provide those opportunities.
Part of the reason why some CSUs have decided to submit this proposal goes back to the foundation and mission statement of the university system such as extending knowledge and learning opportunities, according to the California State University mission webpage.
This is also seen with CSU’s latest collaboration with Open AI which will introduce an AI-powered system that will enhance learning and research, according to a Feb. 18th 2025 Spartan Daily article.
“We already work with our local communities, I mean, so many of our local grads are already working in local newsrooms and our students do internships in these newsrooms,” Liss said. “We cross-publish content with them. We're already partners in so many ways. This would be yet another way that we can support the newsrooms and support our local communities and the public.”
