NewsBeat

May 2023 NewsBeat 8 Continued from Page 7 Want your money faster? Email melissa@nynewspapers.com for an ACH enrollment form. ghost newspapers. By one study, only 17 percent of the articles in local newspapers are about local issues. Now, those "savage woods" can get news from Kyiv but little information about who is running for the town council. If modern policy makers want to follow the model of the founders they should fo- cus not on the literal construct of the post- al subsidy but rather its policy principles. First, as noted, the policies were content neutral. The subsidy was based on distance traveled, not content. This meant that both parties benefited. It meant that sometimes scurrilous rags were helped; sometimes great local reporting benefited. Everyone tolerated the idea that some publications they disliked might survive because it also helped the ones they liked, and a vibrant free press as a whole. Second, it provided a near universal entitlement. Small and large, rural and urban, publications both benefited to some degree. Third, it was future friendly. It did not target only publications that existed before a certain date. If new newspapers arose, they got benefits, too. So it supported inno- vation and not just legacy players. Fourth, the strategy constituted a polit- ical compromise. Although the subsidies were content neutral, each policy did have biases. The low flat rate fee favored city newspapers; the exemption for circulation near the home office benefited smaller towns. So they did both, drawing broad po- litical support. The payroll tax credit that passed the House of Representatives last year had a similar balance: It would have helped cover the costs of local reporters at both Fox and NPR affiliates. What modern policies related to local news most closely embody these char- acteristics? One is the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. It provides a tax credit to consumers to subscribe or donate to a local newsroom; a tax credit to small busi- nesses that advertise; and a tax credit for newsrooms to hire or retain local reporters. But at least 12 states are now considering various ideas, most adhering to the ba- sic principles of the postal subsidy: con- tent-neutral, universal and future friendly. There are likely other policies that can meet the founders' tests. But it's important to remember that while they felt strongly that the government should not help the Federalists over the Jeffersonians, or vice versa, they also believed that a healthy press was so important that it shouldn't necessarily be left entirely to the free mar- ket. And right now we have rampant market failure in the local news system. News- rooms staff has dropped by 57 percent in less than two decades. On average, two newspapers are closing each week. As one tiny example, in Val Verde County in Texas, its sole newspaper, =, shuttered in No- vember 2020, leaving a population of over 47,000 people without a reliable source of local news — and they're not alone. Accord- ing to The State of Local News 2022 Report, 70 million people either live in a "news desert" — where residents "have very lim- ited access to credible and comprehensive news" — or in a community on the verge of becoming one. Four million people live in the more than 200 counties that have no local newspaper, the report states. Even in areas that do have media, the coverage has gotten much weaker. Josh Benton of Nieman Reports described how the paper in his hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana (population 121,000), has gone from 17 newsroom staff to one local re- porter. And of course the constituents of Rep. George Santos can testify that break- down of democracy in their case didn't come from voter suppression, gerryman- dering or dark money but something more elemental: a total failure of the local news ecosystem to provide critical information about the candidates. The founders certainly believed that gov- ernment should not be allowed to restrain or censor. But they also believed that gov- ernment had an affirmative obligation to ensure not only that the press was uncon- strained but also that it was vibrant. Steven Waldman, a longtime journalist, is co-founder of Report For America. He is currently president of Rebuild Local News Coalition, a group dedicated to advancing First Amendment-friendly public policies to help save local news. This article was origi- nally published by Politico. If modern policy makers want to follow the model of the found- ers they should focus not on the literal construct of the postal subsidy but rather its policy prin- ciples.

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