Support Local Journalism Sustainability Act

There will be no attempt at being coy here, no spin to try and paint some kind of alternate reality.

The newspaper industry was struggling before COVID-19 came along and changed the world we live in. The pandemic only intensified the struggle. Now, the industry finds itself fighting for survival, many publications hanging on barely by the skin of their teeth.

Your community newspaper, The Albany Herald, is no different. Measures are being taken on a daily basis to keep this institution — yes, this business — that has served this community for well more than a century not just afloat but in a secure state that will allow dedicated journalists to inform the community about issues that matter to citizens’ lives and well-being.

A possible white knight has appeared on the horizon, however, bringing a potential lifeline that could breathe new life into an industry that many had given up for dead. In Washington this week, Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., introduced the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, a bipartisan bill that helps preserve community journalism throughout the United States.

The Congressional leaders offered telling remarks in introducing the legislation.

“Local journalism is a bedrock pillar of communities across the United States,” Kirkpatrick said. “Unfortunately, journalistic endeavors throughout the country are facing major economic struggles that put the future of many publications in serious jeopardy. These struggles existed before COVID, but the pandemic has only made them more severe. We need to make sure these publications can sustain themselves through this crisis and beyond, and I believe the credits in this bill make significant progress in providing a pathway to that sustainability.”

Added Newhouse: “Local journalists and newspapers are essential to ensuring the public remains informed. Local news is crucial and our local journalists provide in-depth perspectives that inform their readership regarding local current events. Unfortunately, due to transforming business models and changes to advertising mediums, many of our locally-owned newspapers have been struggling to make ends meet, and the pandemic has only exacerbated their situation. By providing tax credits for readers and local businesses and by empowering our local journalists, we can begin to help our newspapers remain resilient and continue to provide important information and updates to our rural communities.”

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act offers a series of three tax credits aimed at sustaining and providing a pathway to viability for the local journalism industry in the years to come. They are:

1) Incentivizing readership by offering a tax credit of up to $250 a year for subscriptions;

2) Providing a refundable credit of up to $50,000 to newspapers to help compensate and retain journalists;

3) Incentivizing advertising by allowing a refundable tax credit to small- and medium-sized businesses (less than 1,000 employees) that advertise with local newspapers. The credits would be for up to $5,000 in the first year of the proposed five-year life of the act and $2,500 for the four subsequent years.

Washington — as well as state and local — politicians’ love/hate relationship with newspapers is well-documented. From the Founding Fathers to the current administration, powerful politicians have aimed pointed barbs at the news media. Yet the overwhelming majority admit that a free and vibrant press is vital to a democracy.

Our nation’s first president, George Washington, subjected to a barrage of criticism from newspapers published by his political opponents, painted journalists as “infamous scribblers.” Yet Washington later said, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who also criticized the media of his time, nevertheless declared, “I am … for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”

Dean Ridings, the modern-day CEO of America’s Newspapers, pointed out that the Local Journalism Sustainability Act would not only serve newspapers well, it would help with the survival of other struggling small businesses in the country.

“America’s Newspapers and its 1,500 local newspaper members are grateful to Reps. Kirkpatrick and Newhouse for this legislation that addresses the economic damage the COVID-19 pandemic has done to newspapers,” Ridings said.

“The Local Journalism Sustainability Act includes measures that will not only help newspapers continue to serve as vital information first responders in their community, but also help local businesses recover and widen access to trusted local news sources. We urge Congress to pass this legislation.”

As we in the newspaper industry celebrate and champion this potentially life-changing legislation, we ask you, our active and passive supporters, to join us in encouraging our federal officials to support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. Like the Founding Fathers and leaders throughout our country’s history up to this day, most of us have gripes with our local newspapers. But trust us when we declare that our community — and our country — would be in a much more precarious state without our community newspapers to keep us informed.