The News Media Alliance commends Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Chris Coons (D-DE) for introducing the “Heroes Small Business Lifeline Act” that provides a Small Business Administration (SBA) affiliation waiver that would allow more news publishers to apply for SBA loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
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.
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.
Our high-quality journalism offers brand safe environments for advertising. Yet news publishers are facing greater challenges than ever due to decreasing advertising revenue resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
A bipartisan group of policymakers in the House of Representatives on July 16 introduced H.R. 7640, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which, if enacted, would provide a series of tax credits for news consumers, news organizations and local newspaper and broadcast advertisers.
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act, introduced in the House of Representatives today by Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) – and the bipartisan group of their colleagues who have joined them as original co-sponsors – would provide incentives for consumers and businesses to help ensure local news publishers survive the current crises, and that they are around to cover the next ones.
News publishers across the country and around the world have long been witnesses to and reporters of historical moments and movements. Journalists have been on the front lines of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and on the streets for the many protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd, and publishers have been speaking out within their pages, too. Every day, the Alliance will feature a different editorial or op-ed from a news publisher.
We applaud Reps. Scanlon and Schiff for recognizing and reaffirming journalists’ Constitutional rights and calling for the protection of these journalists, who are risking their lives to bring critical news and information to the public.
Today, a House version of the “Local News and Emergency Information Act of 2020” was introduced by Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ranking Member F. James Sensenbrenner (WI-05) that offers legislative text around a Small Business Administration affiliation waiver that would allow more news publishers to apply for SBA loans under the Paycheck Protection Program.
