Of the 11 outlets that won journalism Pulitzers, none were owned by hedge funds, 0 owned by private equity, 2 in publicly traded companies, 4 were nonprofit, 5 were family owned
#futureoflocalnews
The story about the Sheriff & others talking about lynching Black people and killing journalists was broken by the McCurtain Gazette-News, a print only weekly -- the sort of papers that are the glue in many communities & are disappearing at a rapid clip.
.
@Gannett
should donate its bottom performing 100 papers to community organizations. They're not producing profit for the company. The trajectory is brutal. Let the communities take a shot. And this would enable Gannett to focus on the saveable papers.
@newsguild
For those intrigued by the
@60Minutes
piece about hedge fund ownership of local news, here are a few of the newspapers now owned by private equity or hedge funds (now accounts for 50% of daily newspaper circulation):
WOW. The California Senate just voted to approved, by 2/3 vote, SB1327, Sen. Glazers bill to provide $500 million for local news, paid for by a tax on the big tech companies. Huge breakthrough.
Alarming. "The number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S." From
@NewsGuardRating
and
@axios
via
@sarafischer
.
BIG NEWS: NY State leaders agree on landmark, bipartisan plan to help counter the collapse of community news โ $30 million in employment tax credits for news outlets. First in the nation. Most significant state effort yet.
Another big win for local news! Illinois approves providing newsrooms up to $15,000 per current local reporter & $25,000 per new hire via tax credits. For-profits, nonprofits, print, digital, bโcast. $25 million total over 5 years.
My new piece explores how the Santos case exposes another facet of the local news crisis -- the disintegration of the local reporting "food chain."
@BulwarkOnline
Pope Francis: โJournalism is not so much a matter of choosing a profession, but rather of embarking on a mission, a bit like a doctor, who studies & works to cure evil in the world....
On cable news, I keep hearing, 'to be sure, the Russians will eventually win; the question is how long will it take.' Seems backward. Truth seems to be: "to be sure, the Russians will eventually lose; the question is how long it will take"
A fantastic development. Civic leaders banding together to preserve their (excellent) newspapers rather than see that scarfed up by hedge funds. And congratulations to
@the_ntln
and the Maine Journalism Fund.
The nonprofit National Trust for Local News
@the_ntln
is buying the Press Herald and all other assets of Masthead Maine in a landmark deal that could preserve local news reporting across the state.
My basic argument: antitrust enforcers should stop hedge funds from buying newspaper chains that gut newspapers. And for the wonks among you, I throw out some theories on how to do this.
A surprise in conversations w/ local newspaper publishers: the tech company they complain about most isnt Google or Facebook (tho no love there). It's Amazon. Advertising is down in part because the local businesses have shrunk... because of Amazon. Anyone else hearing this?
In 1993, the Orange County bureau for LATimes had 175 reporters. In 2018, it had ONE. (Just learned this on a panel with Norm Pearlstine, former LATimes EIC)
โAn attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the publicโs right to know. This cannot be allowed to stand.โ-
@emilybradburyks
โฉ
Some very good news: The version of the Build Back Better Act released today by the House leadership INCLUDES a payroll tax credit for local news organizations to hire and retain journalists. See sec 138516
[drum roll] Weโve formed a nonpartisan nonprofit that will develop & advocate for public policies to help save local news. Check out the site โ and join us! ๐ฅ
If
@DebHaalandNM
, a Native American, is confirmed as Secretary of Interior, she will assume the office once held by Carl Schurz, who declared, โIf the Indians are to live at all, they must learn to live as white men!โ
Big news: โThe national League of Women Voters today overwhelmingly approved a Washington state position advocating for support for local news providers. The decision enables
@LWV
members nationwide to lobby for legislation that would help local news organizations survive.โ
The near-instant collapse of CNN+ amounted to one of the most spectacular media failures in years, a $300 million experiment that ended abruptly. The corporate tug of war over its fate exposed deep philosophical divides about the future of digital media.
Incredible moment during a Colorado legislature hearing on a bill to help save local news. Rep Tom Sullivan, legislator whose son was murdered in the 2012 Aurora school shooting, describes the importance of the local newspaper, the
@SentinelColo
.
@timreganporter
Rough video>
Bravo!
@columbiajourn
providing loan repayment assistance for journalists who go into nonprofit newsrooms. For next rev: we found at
@Report4America
that salaries were often lower at the for profits than the nonprofits!
@jelani9
@BGrueskin
Exciting development in Illinois. The State Senate yesterday passed a bill requiring that there be a 120 day waiting period before a newspaper can be sold to an out of state company (to give time to communities to organize to keep it local)
The view from the podium when welcoming the โฆ
@Report4America
โฉ corps members for the national gathering. Omg these reporters โ serving in local newsrooms โ are so impressive and inspiring!
#thereishope
40 winners or finalists for Pulitzers in local coverage. My rough count: 68% were publications owned by a family, 18% nonprofit, 8% publicly traded corporations, 5% foreign owned, 3% hedge fund owned.
#ownershipmatters
Huge news. The chair of the Commerce Committee (
@MariaCantwell
), the chair of the Senate Finance Committee (
@RonWyden
), &
@SenMarkKelly
just introduced major bill to help local news-- Local Journalism Sustainability Act
For me, Charlie Peters, my mentor and the founder of
@monthly
who died today, pushed us toward intellectual honesty. This passage is one of my favorites. He thought liberalism in the 1960s-2000s was harmed by these "rules," which today define tribal politics and advocacy writing
Heartbreaking quotes from the newsrooms that apply to
@Report4America
. Example: "From Arkansas: โToday there is not a single ag reporter in the state, yet agriculture is Arkansasโs largest industry. This is crazy.โ But also proof the gaps can be filled!
Iโve been looking at bleak statistics about local news for a while and yet this is the most alarming report Iโve ever seen. The crisis in local news is getting WORSE. But there are specific signals beyond โsky IS indeed fallingโ โ and some signs of hope
A tale of two owners. Reade Brower in ME wanted to ensure that his papers served Mainers so he patiently worked out a sale to a local consortium of nonprofits. Patrick Soon-Shiong sells
@sdut
to a hedge fund without giving community players a chance to buy it (as far as we know)
Honestly, these horrific days will keep coming until we accept that local news is a public good and needs some (smart) taxpayer support. CA should immediately pass an employment tax credit for retaining local reporters across the state
LATimes confirms 115 journalists laid off, or about 23 percent; newsroom will be at approx 385.
NOTE: Taken in combination with last year's layoffs, the Los Angeles Times has laid off about one third of its newsroom in less than a year.
Nicely put
@jpalfrey
ย "Americans need to support local news the same way they invest in arts & culture, hospitals, or alma maters.. add it to their list of philanthropic commitmentsโor.. their list of subscriptions, alongside Amazon Prime, Hulu & Netflix"
A paradox: the collapse of local news is so catastrophic that gov't intervention seems needed. But how on Earth can news orgs take $$ from the gov't? Hereโs how: Local Journalism Sustainability Act, a genuinely clever bill reintroduced a few hours ago. 1/7
My new piece about community journalism as antidote to polarization. "In only emphasizing [accountability] journalism, we have offered a grossly incomplete explanation of why the collapse of local news poses a threat to the country."
The website that broke much of the news about the Clayton County, GA election mischief has shut its doors. Important insights about why she couldn't sustain it (including difficulties of raising money from civic leaders when they're the ones being covered)
Local news supporters in New York State: important development. The state senate has included a tax credit for news orgs that hire/retain local reporters. Please weigh in with your state reps and senators if you agree.
Here's the case for why and how the US Justice Department should inspect Alden's bid to take over Lee newspapers. "Hedge fund annexation can be stopped, but... antitrust regulators need to look at the newspaper business differently."
@newsguild
Time to move past the dividing lines of "legacy" local news vs. "new" -- & "commercial" vs. "non-profit". The real split is between community-based media that is mission driven & news driven too much by hedge funds, stock price or debt repayment needs.
"Financialization" means this: half of the daily newspaper circulation in the US is now owned by hedge funds. It is time that we confront that depressing fact and design strategies (philanthropy, govt, biz) to strengthen local news that's grounded in communities.
.
@brianstelter
did an important piece about the role of nationalization of news and politics. This is another colossal consequence of the collapse of local news. It feeds polarization by feeding nationalization.
"$150M is donated to nonprofit news outlets each year, when the industry needs up to $1.75 B....If less than half a percent of all private contributions went to journalism nonprofits, we could replace the loss of local newsrooms & strengthen democracy."
Hedge fund owned papers:
Chicago Tribune
The Baltimore Sun
Orlando Sentinel
South Floridaโs Sun-Sentinel
Virginiaโs Daily Press
The Virginian-Pilot
The Morning Call of Lehigh Valley, PA
Hartford Courant
Chico Enterprise-Record
Eureka Times-Standard
Long Beach Press-Telegram...
There were more than 800 applicants for the 60 reporter slots that
@Report4America
just filled The talent is there. The spirit is there. The local donors (for the local sustainability match) are there. Just needs more natl philanthropy. The local news crisis can be solved.
๐It's the best day in local news...
#RFADay
!
@Report4America
is pleased to welcome 6โฃ0โฃnew corps members who will join hundreds more in continuing to report on under-covered communities and issues across the U.S.
Meet our new corps members โฌ๏ธ
34 extremist right-wing websites pushed Covid disinformation or linked to health misinformation. Public Facebook posts linking to these sites garnered 80 million interactions. Posts linking to the W.H.O. received 6.2 million, the CDC received 6.4 million.
How local reporting saves money for consumers: e.g.
@MLK50Memphis
and
@propublica
found that a local hospital had sued more than 8,300 people, many of them poor, for unpaid hospital bills. After the piece, hospital erased nearly $12 million in debt.
The 60 Minutes Overtime piece did a fantastic job unpacking what Congress could do to help save local news (without endangering editorial independence)!
@60Minutes
@jon_wertheim
"If more public or philanthropic money were directed toward sustaining local news, it would most likely produce financial benefits many times greater than the cost,"
@stevenwaldman
writes:
Local news orgs that are making it -- family owned, with support from the community, collaboration among papers, great investigative work. Very hopeful.
Pinch me.
@report4america
is a finalist for
@macfound
100&Change ($100 mil to one project!) This validates that a national service model can rebuild local news (and that the crisis is severe). Congrats to RFA reporters, newsrooms and the other (amazing!) finalists!
Pink Slime 7.0. Bad faith actors are taking advantage of the collapse of local news to create imposter pay-for-play sites (often funded by dark political $). If we dont strengthen real local news asap, this is our future.
The publisher of right-wing political sites designed to look like newspapers said "his publishing company was filling the void left by the decline of community news, โdelivering hundreds and sometimes thousands of local news stories each week.โ
@Rebuild_News
Fewer local reporters = more pollution: "New research suggests that corporations pollute more when there aren't local papers to hold them accountable."
@report4america
#reportlocal
...Your mission is to explain the world, to make it less obscure, to make those who live in it less afraid and to look at others with greater awareness.โ
I dislike articles that treat "the media" as a unitary character in a story. Was triggered by a Daily Kos piece claiming "The media...is very concerned that". Saying "the media" believes something is like saying "the books in the library contend that..."
#TheMediaIsntAThing
From
@mattizcoop
: "Iโve always loved the maxim, 'A conservative is a liberal whoโs been mugged,' and the riposte, 'A liberal is a conservative whoโs been arrested.' We should add, 'A socialist is a libertarian whose investments went south.'โ
BIG NEWS: ICYMI, a big New York State bipartisan breakthrough--a payroll tax credit for hiring reporters in NY. (NY lost 51% of its journalists since 2005)
For those of us obsessed with local news & public policy, a new GAO report on our topic is like what normal people experience when a Taylor Swift album drops Woo hoo!
Hedge fund owned papers cont'd:
Monterey County Herald
Marin Independent Journal
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Pasadena Star-News
Redlands Daily Facts
The San Bernardino Sun
Bay Area News
The Mercury News
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Torrance Daily Breeze
Ukiah Daily Journal
With Alden Capital's acquisition today of Tribune Co, our nation today reached an ominous milestone: half of the daily newspaper circulation is owned by hedge funds. We can't rebuild local news if we don't confront this tragic fact.
@newsguild
Tribune Publishing shareholders voted Friday to approve hedge fund Alden Global Capitalโs $633 million purchase of the Chicago-based newspaper chain that owns The Baltimore Sun.
โOver the next 5 months, the newspaper exposed several instances of alleged misconduct in the sheriffโs officeโฆincluding homicide evidence that had been tainted, questionable hirings of employees with no previous law enforcement experienceโ
A peek into who is creating quality journalism these days: 74% of the
@PulitzerPrizes
winners were nonprofit orgs or family owned pubs, even though the vast majority of newsrooms are owned by chains. 1/5
The payroll tax credit for local news is nonpartisan, content neutral and targeted to the key problem: too few local reporters. Grateful to
@brianstelter
for having me on
@ReliableSources
@Rebuild_News
My politico piece argues that the massive postal subsidy signed by President Washington propped up the newspaper industry & created the principles for how government could save local news while safeguarding press freedom
If you saw the terrific
@jon_wertheim
@60Minutes
piece and want to help save local news, hereโs how you can help: subscribe or donate to your local news org and support groups like
@Report4America
.
California is in the thick of creating public policy for local news.
@Rebuild_News
submitted testimony suggesting 7 ideas that could work strengthen community journalism in a way that helps medium and small players not just the bigs.
.
@SenStadelman
offers the most comprehensive package to save local news in the US: tax credits for retaining local reporters, gov't ads going to community news, help for small businesses that advertise, a tech co โbargaining code,โ scholarships andโฆ
โHeartfeltโ? They literally have no hearts. Or bodies. Or dna.
Iโm trying not to panic but ai news anchors who are indistinguishable from human..:how will this not be catastrophic? The ability to separate fake from real information will become so hard
See the highest quality AI footage in the world.
๐คฏ - Our generated anchors deliver stories that are informative, heartfelt and entertaining.
Watch the showcase episode of our upcoming news network now.
This is big news for journalism but bittersweet as
@StevenWaldman
moves on to the next chapter in his visionary career. We're excited to see what
@Rebuild_News
can accomplish as its own nonprofit and will remain an active member of the coalition and the fight to save local news!
The best way to combat fake local news is with real local news. We need 5,000 more local (independent, intellectually honest) reporters and 100s of more newsrooms asap.
The vacuum created by the collapse of local news is rapidly being filled โ by partisan and pay-for-play sites. Philanthropy and policymakers need to respond rapidly and boldly or our local news ecosystems will soon resemble national cable TV, or worse.
From wapo: โIn November 2021, the newspaper ran the first article in what would be an eight-part series about misconduct in the sheriffโs office, according to the lawsuitโฆ.
As Congress considers whether to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it's worth noting that the public radio system has 2700 local reporters in 200 newsrooms in all 50 states. Less local public radio means more news deserts.
Hedge fund owned papers cont'd:
Vacaville Reporter
Vallejo Times Herald
East Bay Times
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Whittier Daily News
LA Daily News
The Orange County Register
The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Oroville Mercury-Register
Lake County Record-Bee
Red Bluff Daily News
In 2004, using real dollars, there were almost three reporters for every $100 million spent by state and local governments; in 2020, there was just one reporter per $100 million, a 67 percent decline.
Hedge fund owned papers cont'd:
Peninsula News
The Beach Reporter
Fort Bragg Advocate-News
The Mendocino Beacon
Paradise Post
Redwood Times
Willits News
Impacto usa
Cannifornian
The Cannabist
Denver Post
The Know
Boulder Daily Camera
Colorado Daily
Daily Record
Fort Morgan Times
Statehouse coverage -- an area where the nonprofit local news surge has made a big dent. Proud that at least 20 of those statehouse journalists are
@Report4America
Of the 80 nonprofit news outlets that cover U.S. statehouses, 39 were founded within the last five years. These relatively new nonprofits employ 174 statehouse reporters โ 49% of the total number of nonprofit statehouse reporters counted in the study.
Unfortunately, Congress did not include the payroll tax credit to retain/hire local reporters in their omnibus, as we'd hoped. On average, 2 newspapers shut each week. The collapse of local news will continue if we dont get much smarter about using public policy to help.
"the country has lost almost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists โ 43,000 โ since 2005." (Imagine if a headline appeared: "US loses 2/3 of teachers")
An incredibly impressive group. Honored that
@Rebuild_News
is in the mix -- and pleased about the recognition that public policy to strengthen community news has to be a key piece of the puzzle.
๐We're proud to announce our first set of grants to support pooled and aligned grantmaking for
#PressForward
!
These grants include funding for infrastructure support and shared services, along with direct support for eight local newsrooms.
Learn moreโฌ๏ธ
The
@Report4America
corps will grow to 325 in 2022, thanks to the addition of 150 reporting slots (including 70 newsrooms new to RFA). I talk about the crisis all day long. But there is so much innovation & a spirit of public service in local newsrooms
โRebuilding local news would also help rebuild trust in the media โ which is crucial because studies have shown that the more people distrust the media, the more likely they are to spread misinformation,โ says
@Report4America
โs
@StevenWaldman
. via
@monthly
This week a conservative Republican,
@RepTenney
, teamed up with an influential Dem,
@RepDelBene
, to propose a fantastic new bill save / rebuild local news. Tax credit for small businesses that advertise with local news. Payroll tax credit for hiring/retaining local reporters.
Hedge fund owned papers cont'd:
The Oneida Daily Dispatch
The Saratogian
The Morning Journal
The News-Herald
Main Line Media News
Bucks Local News
Montgomery Media
Delaware County NewsNetwork
The Phoenix Reporter & Item
Berksmont News
The Build Back Better Act just approved by the House includes a tax credit for local news. It is simple & nonpartisan. It helps local newsrooms retain and hire local journalists to cover their communities. The Rebuild Local News Coalition statement>>
Some Founding Fathers wanted a humungously massive subsidy for newspapers. Others wanted a merely massive subsidy. Madison wrote that charging any postage was a "tax on newspapers" and an โan insidious forerunner to something worse.โ