California’s Online Journalism Bill Would Be A Windfall for Fox News and Other Disinfo Outlets
Fox News would earn 643 times as much as small CA newspapers, 844 times as much as CA Black news outlets
California’s state legislature is considering a bill similar to the Journalism Competition Preservation Act (JCPA) proposed in Congress last year. California’s Assembly Bill 886, authored by Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, would require digital platforms to pay news organizations every time users click through the platform to a news site
In December 2022, I estimated how much money local newspapers backing JCPA would receive if the bill passed. In an analysis of media outlets that supported the legislation, I found that conservative media outlets would receive more money from the penalty fees than local newspapers.
California’s Online Journalism Bill
During a hearing on AB 886 last week members questioned whether the bill would encourage clickbait, enhance high-quality journalism that takes time to produce, or help minority-owned papers.
To understand which news outlets will benefit the most from AB 886, I compiled data on website traffic from Google to various news organizations in California.
Using traffic estimates from Similarweb, I examined which news outlets will likely receive the most money from arbitration negotiations under California’s proposed legislation. AB 886 does not establish any constraints on the size or location of news organizations benefiting from the bill. As such, major news organizations will receive a portion of the total money provided for media outlets under the bill. Assuming the bill would result in payments to news organizations based on traffic, large national news organizations will receive the most money because they generate the most amount of content.
Who Benefits the Most from AB 886?
In the analysis shown below, I looked at the traffic volume across five categories of news outlets:
- Fox News and disinformation giants (NY Post, Newsmax)
- Major California news outlets (Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle)
- Black news media in California (The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Sacramento Observer)
- Latino news media (Adelante Valle, The San Fernando Valley Sun)
- Newspapers located in California’s worst news deserts (Tuolumne County Union Democrat, Yuba County Appeal-Democrat)
The chart below shows the estimated monthly traffic of each category of news organization:
Based on traffic data, Fox News and other disinformation giants will likely receive:
- 4 times as much as major California news outlets
- 151 times as much as Latino news outlets in California
- 643 times as much as California newspapers located in the worst news deserts in the state
- 844 times as much as Black news outlets in California
How Will California’s AB 886 Affect Different News Outlets?
Next, I present and discuss findings from each news outlet within the categories described above.
Fox News and Disinformation Giants
Fox News recently settled a major defamation lawsuit with Dominion voting systems for $787.5 million for amplifying misinformation about the 2020 election. California’s proposal under AB 886 could backfill some of the losses Fox suffered as a result of the settlement — essentially requiring a wealth transfer from large platforms to major news organizations — even those at risk for spreading more disinformation.
Furthermore, Fox News is not a struggling media outlet. In fact, in February 2023 Forbes reported that Fox News recently hit its 23rd consecutive month at the top according to prime-time viewership.
Committee members also expressed concern regarding the spread of disinformation and the need for objective journalism for Californians. This raises the question of how news outlets spreading disinformation would benefit under AB 886.
To develop a list of outlets spreading disinformation online in the U.S. I used information from the Global Disinformation Index’s (GDI) most recent report, which lists the top ten news websites spreading disinformation in the U.S..
The chart below shows monthly traffic estimates for Fox News and the top ten disinformation news outlets featured in the report.
Major California News Outlets
Turning to major news outlets in California, I examined how major California news outlets like the LA Times or the San Francisco Chronicle may benefit from AB 886. The chart below shows traffic estimate data for twenty major news organizations based in California.
Based on traffic data for this group of news outlets, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Mercury News, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and The Orange County Register stand to benefit the most from AB 886.
Black Media Outlets
During last week’s hearing, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, Chair of California’s Legislative Black Caucus, asked about how news media serving minority communities would be affected by the bill. Research shows that ethnic media outlets have been some of the hardest hit by recent changes to the media landscape. These outlets tend to be smaller in size and would likely receive a smaller portion of the total funds required to go to media outlets under the bill.
I compiled a list of news organizations using the information on outlets from California Black Media (CBM), focusing on outlets providing written and/or broadcast news. The screenshot below describes CBM’s role in California.
The chart below shows traffic data for the news outlets from CBM that produce written or broadcast news in California.
Note that in the chart above, The Los Angeles Sentinel has the highest level of monthly traffic from this category, with over 24,000 visits per month from Google. This is much lower than the highest traffic websites in the ‘Fox News and Disinformation Giants’ and ‘Major California News Outlets’ categories.
Latino News Media Outlets
Next, I compiled a list of Latino news outlets and recorded website traffic data for those outlets, using The City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s “The State of the Latino News Media” report. The report provides information on Latino media outlets by state in 2019. For my analysis, I focused on newspaper outlets in the state of California.
Many of the outlets listed in the chart above have under 1,000 instances of traffic from Google in a given month. Additionally, Adelante Valle has the most traffic within this category but the level of traffic is much lower than in other categories
Media Outlets in News Deserts
Committee members also discussed the lack of journalism coverage in rural areas of the state. To examine the dispersion of news outlets across California’s geography, I used data from the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media’s News Desert Research Project. Based on the data from that research project, I compiled a list of twelve California news outlets that are located in counties with one newspaper serving the county.
Traffic data from these small, local newspapers is shown in the chart below.
The chart above indicates that Union Democrat is the highest-traffic website for this category of news, with roughly 24,780 monthly visitors. Comparing that to the ‘Fox News and Disinformation Giants’ category, almost all disinformation outlets have more traffic than the highest outlet in this category — News Deserts.
AB 886: A Boon for Disinformation Outlets
While proponents of AB 886 may argue that this bill addresses the lack of funding that threatens the existence of a free press, it is important to consider the potential drawbacks.
First, the bill could result in the transfer of funds to outlets that promote misinformation, which could ultimately undermine the bill’s stated goal of supporting quality journalism.
Second, the bill’s focus on benefiting national outlets may not be the best solution for supporting local journalism in California.
Rather than supporting this bill as it currently stands, it may be more productive to consider alternative solutions that provide targeted support for local journalism and avoid unintended consequences.
Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future. We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.
Our work is supported by our corporate partners, but our partners do not sit on our board of directors and do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.
