The deal, which Newsom said would ensure "the survival of newsrooms,” was reached after Google spent $11 million on lobbying state lawmakers to drop proposals that would have forced Google to pay newsrooms for using their content.

Google and California struck a deal last year to fund local news. Now Gov. Newsom is proposing to pull back two-thirds of the state commitments. Google could follow suit.

Instead, lawmakers agreed to tech firms’ proposal to help local newsrooms and explore artificial intelligence.

The California Journalism Preservation Act directs big tech companies to pay publishers a “journalism usage fee” each time they use local news content and sell advertising alongside it. In turn, the bill requires news publishers to invest 70% of the profits from the usage fee in journalism jobs.