On July 3, the Press & Journal, a weekly newspaper in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, produced its last issue after 166 years of local publication. The Independent-Enterprise in Payette, Idaho, shut down June 24. The New Sharon (Iowa) Sun closed June 18. The Merkel (Texas) Mail ended its 130-year run on May 27.
The list goes on. One casualty of COVID-19 has been the accelerated carnage of newspapers across America. Publishing businesses that were, in many cases, already shaky have been ravaged by a decline in advertising from other local institutions affected by the pandemic.
Just one Montana news organization, the online Havre Herald, has closed as a result of COVID., but journalists and other staff have been furloughed at all the state’s dailies. Along the Hi-Line, the Cut Bank Pioneer Press, Glacier Reporter, Shelby Promoter, and Valerian have, at least for now, merged into a single weekly edition.
Media followers know that this is nothing new, of course: The decline of newspapers at the hands of the Internet and changing audience tastes has been playing out for two decades. Those who fault journalism for sensationalism and lack of trustworthiness, among other sins, may say: Good riddance.
But there’s ample evidence that independent news actually is critical to democracy, and that the loss of 1,800 print outlets since 2004 (according to data in the Newspaper Research Journal) weakens citizenship and civic function.
A 2015 study in the Journal of Politics, for example, found that people in places with less news coverage were less likely to vote and share opinions about political candidates. A study in 2014 described a correlation between newspaper closures and lower civic engagement. Intriguingly, a working paper published in 2018 posits that municipal borrowing costs were higher in communities where newspapers had stopped publishing – perhaps because there was less scrutiny of public projects.
If you believe in the importance of newspapers to civil society, you should be heartened by The Local Journalism Sustainability Act. The bipartisan bill, introduced on July 16 by U.S. Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick, (D-Arizona) and Dan Newhouse, (R-Washington, provides for tax credits for subscribing to local newspapers, payroll credits for publishers who employ local journalists, and credits for businesses and others that advertise in local newspapers and local media.
Here are the details of what the legislation would allow:
•Credit for advertising in local newspapers and local media. Businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees would be eligible for a five-year non-refundable tax credit to spend on advertising in local newspapers or local radio or television stations. The credit, up to $5,000 in the first year and $2,500 in each of the next four years, would cover 80% of advertising costs in the first year and 50% annually thereafter. This provision helps local businesses as well as local media companies.
•Credit for local newspaper subscriptions. The act provides for a non-refundable tax credit of up to $250 per year to help cover the costs of subscriptions to local newspapers, in print or digital form, that primarily produce content related to news and current events. The credit would cover 80% of subscription costs in the first year, and 50% thereafter and helps consumers while incentivizing support of local news organizations.
•Payroll credit for journalists. This five-year refundable tax credit could be used by local newspapers on compensation of its journalists up to $50,000 a year. The credit would cover 50% of compensation, up to $50,000, in the first year and 30% of compensation, up to $50,000, in each of the subsequent four years. This provision will go a long way toward ensuring that communities keep their local news coverage.
As a newspaper publisher myself, I am obviously self-interested — but I believe that this is a thoughtful and far-sighted bill that merits support. I’m especially pleased by the proposed credit for newspaper subscribers, which could help rebuild the muscle among Americans for reading, listening to, and watching the news — and supporting those who produce it — as an elemental act of citizenship.
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act would not be a panacea. Many newspapers have been painfully slow to respond to the challenges posed by the Internet and social media; we still have to figure out how get to a business model that’s sustainable.
We also must provide responsible, fact-based journalism that earns our communities’ trust and financial support by telling the whole story — covering diverse experiences that reflect the entirety of their communities, and reporting on what’s working in a community, which is as true and as important as what fails.
Quality journalism is, I believe, at the heart of the only viable, long-term fix for newspapers. But the Local Journalism Sustainability Act could help give publishers some breathing room in an especially challenging moment. I ask U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester, and Representative Greg Gianforte, to lend their backing to this important measure.
