“The decline of local journalism is a clear and present threat to our democracy,” declares the Empire State Local News Coalition which describes itself as “a statewide coalition of hometown newspapers fighting for the long-term sustainability local journalism in New York.”
It continues: “Hometown newspapers are a foundational part of the American experience; we uplift the stories of everyday New Yorkers making a difference in their communities and serve as watchdogs that hold those in power accountable.”
The coalition says it is “championing a robust legislative package that ensures local papers will survive through the 21st century and beyond. From tax incentives that make it easier to hire and retain talent to increasing the public’s access to information, our platform offers bipartisan measures that will ensure local communities continue to have their voices heard for generations to come.”
But in recent sessions of the State Legislature, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which contained that “package” did not pass.
However, basics of the measure have morphed into what’s called the Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Program which Governor Kathy Hochul has included in the state’s proposed 2025-2026 budget. The deadline for final approval of the budget by the State Legislature and Governor is April 1.
According to the website Rebuild Local News, the program “will spend $90 million on hiring newsroom workers in the state….A publisher will be eligible for a subsidy of up to 50% in salary paid to an employee. An outlet would also be eligible to receive an additional $5,000 if that employee is a new hire in that tax year. The benefits are capped at $320,000 per newsroom per year.”
The subsidies are in the form of state tax credits over three years.
“How did this program come about?” asks Rebuild Local News. It says it’s “the result of months of advocacy on the part of the Empire State News Coalition” and lists other groups advocating for it.
As to, “Who qualifies for the subsidy?” the website says “the regulatory process…will be overseen by Empire State Development [Corporation]” and says the program “discusses ‘newspapers,’ but does not define whether that includes digital-only or non-profit outlets….These issues will be decided during the regulatory process.”
Although online-only digital news outlets as well as non-profit platforms are not covered by the program as presently written, there are now discussions underway to add online-only digital news outlets. If they aren’t included now, the Empire State Development Corporation could decide on adding them “during the regulatory process.” Meanwhile, the program needs to get through budget negotiations and be in the finally adopted budget.
If online-only digital news outlets do not get included, it could reflect a historical wrinkle: old media feeling threatened by new media.
For example, when commercial radio began in the U.S. in the 1920’s, some newspapers wouldn’t publish radio station schedules fearing the competition.
A major reason for the sharp decline of print media in recent years has been the robust growth of digital media. As a professor of journalism for 47 years, in discussing with my students prospective employment in media, I cite a line from the film “The Graduate.” It’s when the protagonist, a young man played by Dustin Hoffman, is told by a friend of his family: “I just want to say one word—just one word—to you, plastics…There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it.”
I suggest the students consider, in “one word”—"digital,” and this greatly expanding media area. Not, I add, that I want to discourage their seeking to go into print journalism or TV or radio (in which many of my students have successfully found jobs).
I also note that the economic model for online digital journalism is still in process. I cite the nation’s first commercial radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, going on air on Nov. 2, 1920 broadcasting the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential race. It was owned by Westinghouse which started it essentially to sell the radios it manufactured.
Two years later, how radio would be principally financed in the U.S.—advertising—began with, on August 28, 1922, a commercial aired by New York radio station WEAF (now WFAN) for the Nathaniel Hawthorne Apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Today, online digital news platforms are funded either through subscriptions implemented by “paywalls” or advertising.
Meanwhile, the situation involving print journalism is grim. Over the past two decades, the United States has lost more than a third of its newspapers. Newspapers across the nation continue to disappear at a rate of more than two a week. As a result, there are what is now called “news deserts”—places with no local newspapers. This includes communities on Long Island. Last year, Hofstra University launched a website—newsdesert.hofstra.edu—based on a study by three of its journalism professors on this.
Last month, I was stunned—yet not surprised—by a full-page article in The New York Times headlined: “The End of a Stories Press Run for The Star Ledger.” The subhead: “New Jersey’s longtime paper of record will become an online-only news outlet.”
I was with its sister Newhouse newspaper, the daily Long Island Press, that ceased publication in 1977. In the early 70s, after I broke the story in The Press about the oil industry planning to drill in the Atlantic, including off Long Island and New Jersey, some of my reporting on this was from New Jersey working alongside Star Ledger journalists. Also, the newspaper at which I had a college internship that inspired me to go into journalism, the Cleveland Press, ceased publication in 1982.
On the national level, the Community News and Small Business Support Act, a version of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act in New York, has been introduced in Congress. Its sponsor in the House of Representatives was Claudia Tenney, a Republican from upstate Oswego County. But it didn’t pass.
As the Empire State Local News Coalition declares: “The time is now to save local journalism. Democracy can’t wait.”