NewsBeat

4 NewsBeat August 2019 Two new bills in Congress propose a helping hand for a hurting industry A s the news industry continues to suffer layoffs and sinking profits, efforts are afoot in Congress to lend a hand. In recent months, two bills have been introduced that aim to help publications reassert themselves amid a challenging market, and a group of congress members, led by Mark DeSaulnier, a Democrat from California, have dedicated themselves to seeking further solutions. In the early 1990s, when DeSaulnier was a city council member in Concord, California— a Bay Area city, northeast of San Francisco— he recalls tough reporters in the front row at every council meeting. Those reporters knew local politics inside and out, DeSaulnier says. As the years passed—and DeSaulnier graduated to mayor, to the Contra Costa County board of supervisors, and in the mid- 2000s to state senator—he saw both the quantity and the quality of local journalists dwindle, even as the Bay Area's population was expanding rapidly. "I went from answering really intelligent questions to having to tell reporters where they could find things on the county website," DeSaulnier says. Today, DeSaulnier represents California's 11th congressional district in Washington, DC, but local news remains front-of-mind. "I really despair," he says. "There need to be critical writers out there, with the time to stay at it." As the Bay Area news scene continued to deteriorate, it struck DeSaulnier that Congress might be able to help. Last year, DeSaulnier formed The Working Group on Saving Local News. It includes David Cicilline, of Rhode Island; Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter, of Colorado; Jamie Raskin, of Maryland; and Zoe Lofgren, also of California, all Democrats. They have solicited expertise from a variety of media trade associations and publishers to help get their heads around the extent of the challenges outlets face. In April, the group introduced a resolution recognizing the importance of local journalism and hosted a special session on the House floor to highlight the issue, during which several members explained how declines in local news have impacted their districts. DeGette, who represents the Denver area, lamented how, in a short few years, The Denver Post, has downsized from 250 staffers to less than 100, while other Denver papers had closed outright. In other Colorado counties, she said, no newspaper exists at all. "For the sake of our democracy, we need our local newspapers, we need our local reporters, we need our watchdogs doing what they do best," DeGette said. "We need to find ways to protect our local news outlets and help them thrive." The group has also explored legislative steps that might help reverse the decline. One bill—in the spotlight due to a House investigation into big tech companies— seeks to empower news outlets to push back against the likes of Google and Facebook, on the premise that those companies have cut By ANDREW McCORMICK

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