Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media
The California Civic Media Program’s grants will open in the summer of 2026, with the first round of award decisions and funding distributions expected to be officially announced in the fall of 2026, according to the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz).
Referred to as the Civic Media Fund, the program is a $20 million public-private partnership aimed at strengthening local journalism, improving access to reliable information, and increasing community engagement across California. The program is funded by a $10 million appropriation from the state and a $10 million matching contribution from Google.
Regina Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media and a member of the program’s advisory board, said the fund is a “step in the right direction.”
“I believe the Civic Journalism Fund is one of many tools that will be needed to help save local journalism. It may not satisfy all of the needs that community media, or journalism more broadly, faces at this moment,” Wilson said. “But it does infuse much-needed resources into an industry that has been badly harmed by federal policies and market shifts that began decades ago and have steadily weakened local news.”
Wilson added, “I believe the Civic Journalism Fund is one of many tools that will be needed to help save local journalism. It may not satisfy all of the needs that community media, or journalism more broadly, faces at this moment. But it does infuse much-needed resources into an industry that has been badly harmed by federal policies and market shifts that began decades ago and have steadily weakened local news.”
GO-Biz is California’s primary office for economic strategy, job growth, and business assistance. It serves as the single, centralized point of contact for companies seeking to start, expand, or relocate within the state.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) authored Assembly Bill (AB) 886, the “California Journalism Preservation Act,” (CJPA) to put pressure on digital advertising monopolies and major tech platforms like Google and Meta to subsidize local news outlets for utilizing their journalism content.
Wicks said she authored AB 886 to help ensure the sustainability of local journalism, as news outlets across the country are downsizing and closing at alarming rates.
Wicks’s office discovered through a study produced by Northwestern University that an average of two and a half newspapers in the country close every week, and that the United States has lost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005.
California has lost more than 100 newspapers in the last decade alone.
“The CJPA provides a lifeline for news outlets – large, small, and ethnic – by directing a portion of the ad dollars back to the print, digital, and broadcast media that bear the entire cost of gathering and reporting local news while Big Tech bears none,” Wicks stated after she introduced the bill. “It’s time they start paying market value for the journalism they are aggregating at no cost from local media.”
To help navigate the state’s landmark $20 million Civic Media Program, GO-Biz created an Advisory Board consisting of a nine-member panel. The advisory board holds public meetings throughout the year to provide recommendations to GO-Biz on the program’s approach and guidelines of the program. Meetings will be noticed on the Civic Media Program webpage.
GO-Biz appointed news industry leaders and journalistic advocates with knowledge of fact-seeking, verification, objective journalism, and the persistent watchdog oversight of the world’s fourth-largest economy to the Civic Media Program Advisory Board.
“An informed public is the foundation of a healthy democracy,” stated Dee Dee Myers, Senior Advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Director of GO-Biz.
“By bringing together distinguished leaders from across the state who care deeply about supporting local journalism, expanding access to trusted information, and improving newsroom sustainability, the Civic Media Program will help Californians stay connected to the issues that shape their lives and strengthen their communities,” Myers added.
To ensure strict editorial freedom, GO-Biz appointed the James B. McClatchy Foundation as the third-party administrator for the state funds following a thorough Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
The nonprofit foundation is in charge of designing overarching program guidelines in conjunction with GO-Biz, while the advisory board independently processes and scores all grant applications ahead of final awards.
“Through longstanding regional partnerships in the Inland Empire and Silicon Valley, and statewide collaboration with community foundations across California, we’re prepared to help ensure this program reaches newsrooms where they are, while fully protecting editorial independence and honoring the leadership of journalists, publishers, and nonprofitnewsrooms who know their communities best,” stated Priscilla Enriquez, President and CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation.
Wilson said by setting up the fund to support community news, “the Governor and the Legislature are acknowledging that local journalism matters and that community news organizations play a vital role in informing residents, strengthening civic engagement, and holding institutions accountable.”
“This investment alone will not solve every challenge facing the industry. But it is a meaningful start, and we should continue building on it with additional strategies and long-term solutions that protect and sustain local journalism for future generations,” said Wilson.
