Journalism in New York, the media capital of the world, will get a $30 million boost under a first-of-its-kind measure approved in the state budget providing tax credits to cover up to half of a reporter’s salary. Aimed at helping publishers build up their newsroom and retain staff, the credits will cover up to $50,000 of a journalist’s pay every year.
“The decline of local news across the country has led to the loss of one-third of newspapers and two-thirds of its journalists since 2005, leaving more than 200 counties as ‘news deserts’ without access to local news,” said the bill’s senate sponsor, Brad Hoylman-Sigal. “In response, I’m elated that we passed our first-in-the-nation Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Program tax incentive in this year’s state budget.”
According to the Manhattan lawmaker, “This new initiative will help strengthen local news coverage by creating a $30 million tax credit to hire and retain journalists for qualifying, independently owned print media or broadcasting entities, particularly those that have experienced workforce or circulation decline in the last five years. With this new tax credit, we’ll help ensure that New Yorkers are better informed and that democracy doesn’t die in darkness.”
The assembly sponsor of the bill, Carrier Woerner, said, “Local newspapers are disappearing, subsumed into national companies and relying on national content providers to fill their pages. On-the-ground trained journalists play a crucial role in keeping people informed about what is happening in their county, city, town, village or neighborhood. I am pleased that this year’s budget includes a new tax credit which supports these news companies to maintain and grow their newsroom staffs with local reporters,” the Albany legislator stated.
A litany of organizations, including the Albany Newspaper Guild, New York News Publishers Association, New York State AFL-CIO, NewsGuild-CWA, and the Communications Workers of America, pushed for the taxpayer-funded measures.
“We know when there are robust local newspapers, there is less corruption and more transparency, municipal bond rates are lower, and public engagement in their communities is higher,” said Ken Crowe, president of the Albany Newspaper Guild. Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York, the state’s largest union representing media workers, added, “We are thrilled that our lawmakers have taken this step to protect local news, which is so vital to our democracy. This ground-breaking tax credit recognizes that local news has hit a crisis in our state and the way to begin to reverse it is by protecting and creating new jobs for journalists. There is no local news without journalists.”