On October 17th, a Maryland circuit court judge struck down the state’s tax on digital advertising services. The ruling held that the tax violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act, the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, as well as the First Amendment.
The News Media Alliance applauds the passage by Congress last night of the long-awaited Postal Service Reform Act, H.R. 3076, originally sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and James Comer (R-KY). The Bill will reduce costs of the Postal Service to curb postal rate increases for newspapers.
On December 29, New York Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have required electronic book publishers to issue licenses to state libraries on “reasonable terms.
On December 9, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maryland to block legislation that would force publishers to license literary works to state libraries.
The News Media Alliance is deeply disappointed by Friday’s U.S. Court of Appeals decision to preserve major postage rate increases authorized earlier this year.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) filed proposed postage increases that are, in some cases, seven times the rate of inflation. This increase will have detrimental effects on small businesses, including small-market and rural newspapers that cannot afford the increased costs, particularly as they strive to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19.
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.
Though online traffic to news sites has spiked during the pandemic, far too many news publishers are still struggling. Thankfully, the recently-enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act provides some relief for American businesses, including news publishers, during this challenging time.
As previously announced, Visa will implement a new policy around subscription services that may impact newspaper publishers. This new policy will go into effect on April 18 and establishes new rules for consumer disclosure and acceptance of free trials and promotional offers for recurring subscriptions.
The Alliance and 11 other business associations sent a letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) encouraging the agency to put forward measures in the coming weeks that will provide business mailers with incentives to stay in our nation’s postal system during the COVID-19 crisis. Associations representing newspapers, magazines, direct mailers, non-profit mailers and others reminded USPS management that its operations are fully funded by postage rates paid by individuals and businesses.
