Rally at State House to help save local journalism

The Empire State Local News Coalition, a statewide advocacy group of more than 150 local news outlets was joined by elected officials in a rally at the State House in Albany on March 20 to show support for the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which would provide tax credits to aid local news operations in New York. The State Senate has added the legislation to is budget resolution and there were calls for the Assembly and Gov. Hochul to join in supporting it.

The bipartisan bill would provide up to $20 million in payroll tax credits for the employment of local news journalists. News organizations would receive a 50% refundable tax credit against the first $50,000 of each newsroom employee’s salary, up to $200,000 per outlet. This benefit would be limited to print and online newspapers and broadcasters with 100 employees or less. The news organizations would have to cover local community news..

Elected officials attending the rally included State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Sen. Monica Martinez, and Assemblymembers Michaelle Solages and David Weprin.

Proponents of the legislation noted that New York state has experienced a 50% decrease in the number of newspapers since 2004. Thirteen New York counties now have only one newspaper and Orleans County is the first with no local newspaper at all.

Hoylman-Sigal said, “It’s been said that democracy dies in darkness. A thriving local news industry is vital to the health of our democracy, so I’m proud that our Local Journalism Sustainability Act is in the Senate’s one house budget and I’m hopeful that through it we can establish a payroll tax credit to help keep our community news outlets afloat.”

Terry Tuthill, president at New York Press Association, said, “This proposal, if approved, could be a game changer for small and medium size news organizations, many of which are struggling to pay bills, keep valued employees and grow. We’re not asking for a bail out, just meaningful tax relief.”