The News Media Alliance commends Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) for the release of her report, “Local Journalism: The Threat to America’s Most Trusted News Source,” outlining how changes in the information marketplace and the dominance of online platforms pose an existential threat to local news publishers
As we head into what is going to be a truly historic election, we must remember the importance of the freedoms granted by the First Amendment and the value of the free press. For many years – but especially in the last four years – journalists in the United States have been literally under attack for doing their jobs.
In response to the lawsuit filed today by the Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing Google of antitrust violations related to its search and advertising services, Alliance President and CEO, David Chavern, stated, “It is good that the DOJ is starting the process, but ‘search distribution’ issues are a small subset of the many issues presented by Google dominance. News publishers are particularly harmed by Google’s control of ad tech – and that doesn’t appear to be covered at all by the DOJ’s action today.
In the span of just nine months in late 2019 and early 2020, the Washington, D.C. area lost two local newspapers, The Washington Post Express and The Current. A combined readership of 300,000 daily and weekly readers lost their connection to their local news in print and online. D.C. is just one of many such cases nationwide of a community losing its local newspapers.
Today, Representatives Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and Robert Aderholt (R-AL) sent a letter to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting that it conduct a comprehensive review of current government agency expenditures on advertising and to examine how federal agencies could place more advertising with local news publishers and broadcast stations.
House Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law have released their long-awaited report on the anticompetitive behavior of the big tech platforms.
The Supreme Court today announced that it will hear petitions filed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a group of industry stakeholders (including the News Media Alliance) seeking to reinstate the FCC’s steps to modernize the country’s media ownership rules, including the repeal of a 1970s-era rule that prohibits common ownership of a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same market.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial (FJM) Foundation, News Media Alliance, National Newspaper Association and National Association of Broadcasters today commended the U.S. House of Representatives on passing bipartisan legislation authorizing the FJM Foundation to establish a national memorial that honors the many reporters, editors, photographers and broadcasters who have lost their lives reporting the news.
On September 13, David Chavern joined the Journal-isms™ Roundtable as a guest speaker on furthering diversity and inclusion in the news industry.
If you, like your intrepid Alliance reporter here, have been properly social distancing, you’ve likely spent a lot of time with the TV on in the background or binging your comfort film favorites to get you through the past few months. And our time at home has not yet ended, so get ready to cozy up with some more of your favorite streaming services this fall.
