On Wednesday, the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google all testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee on Antitrust as part of the Subcommittee’s investigation into the anticompetitive practices of online platforms.
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 News Media Alliance is a member of the COVID-19 Liability Coalition, organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to advocate for the introduction of legislation that would ensure liability protection for businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, and state and local agencies, from lawsuits if a customer or employee comes down with the coronavirus.
As we have seen with other legislation originating in California, AB 2811 could set in motion a patchwork of different state laws, which would increase regulatory costs on news publishers and could potentially stunt the growth of reader revenue at a time when publishers need it the most.
News organizations across the country are offering potentially life-saving information to readers. But as news organizations struggle to stay afloat, many digital advertisers have used keyword blocking to prevent ads from running next to coronavirus-related content.
We have provided links to Alliance and other third-party resources that provide useful information for news publishers about the Stimulus Package, CARES Act, Small Business loans and more. Please check back regularly – we will continue to update this page with more resources, as they become available, that may be helpful to news publishers.
The Alliance has been working over the last six weeks to enhance the ability of newspapers to get recognition and relief during the COVID-19 pandemic – making sure that newspapers are recognized as “essential” businesses; fighting restrictions that would have excluded certain newspapers under the original CARES Act; and advocating for a delay in pension payments. We have continued to work over the last couple of weeks to expand the SBA loan program to more newspaper companies and to encourage the federal government to immediately direct current spending on advertising to local media outlets.
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.
