Today the lead sponsors of the of the bipartisan Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA – H.R. 1735 and S. 673) announced progress on this critical bill for local news. Senate text was released and listed on the agenda for Senate Judiciary Committee markup in September.
The JCPA would allow local news publishers to come together to collectively negotiate with the Big Tech platforms, such as Google and Facebook, for fair compensation for use of their content. Currently, small and local publishers do not have the ability to negotiate these deals on their own, as the dominant tech platforms capture the majority of U.S. digital ad revenue, leaving local publishers with little to reinvest in the production of high-quality journalism.
News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern said, “We applaud Chairwoman Klobuchar, Senator Kennedy, Chairman Cicilline, and Ranking Member Buck for their leadership in progressing the JCPA and for their hard work and dedication to fighting for the future of local journalism through pursuing fair and just compensation for news publishers. The time to act is now.”
The JCPA has broad support, not only in Congress where it has strong support in both the House and the Senate (on both sides of the aisle – including 79 total co-sponsors), but also from 215 consumer interest groups, unions, conservatives, advocacy groups and third-party organizations that have shown support for the JCPA by sending letters of support to the bill sponsors. In addition, nearly 24,000 individuals have signed a Change.org petition for the bill and nearly 1,000 editorials in support of the JCPA have been published in newspapers in 48 states across the country. In a recent poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research for the News/Media Alliance, 70 percent of Americans said they support Congress passing the JCPA.
The Alliance thanks the many co-sponsors of the bill for their leadership in pursuing this legislation and for their commitment to sustaining quality journalism.
View the joint House and Senate press release on the release of the bill text here.
Click here to view a full list of third-party support organizations and bill co-sponsors.
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Media contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
