Massachusetts Bill Set to Subsidize Newspaper Subscriptions

Ironically, a regular revenue stream for most smaller papers - the government - is likely to dry up:


https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/feb/10/nwbill-seeks-to/?news-arkansas (news-arkansas)

A bill intended to change how Arkansas counties and municipalities publish various legal notices was filed Thursday.

House Bill 1399, by Rep. Frances Cavenaugh, R-Walnut Ridge, would require local jurisdictions to publish notices -- including those related to elections, filling of vacancies and the amendment of ordinances -- on government websites.

The bill would strike language from current law that requires municipalities and counties to publish notices in local newspapers. The publication of government notices is a significant stream of revenue for many newspapers.

The Arkansas Press Association and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette oppose the bill.



Here's that Invisible Hand of Ron DeSantis:

Battles over Newspaper Legal Notices Intensify

They are usually not the most scintillating content in a newspaper: the small-print legal notices that state and federal governments are required to publish to inform constituents of what they are doing.
But from a business point of view, the notices, which cover everything from rezoning requests to sidewalk café permits, are a vital stream of revenue for U.S. newspapers at a time when other traditional advertising revenue continues to decline. Since 2005, the U.S. has lost more than 2,500 newspapers, a quarter of its total.
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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a critic of the media, signed the measure in May. The bill becomes effective Jan. 1, 2023. That concerns David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, a leading news industry trade group. “It’s a bad idea to expect the government to put out notices about itself. There’s a component of self-interest where the government deciding where to post is just not sound public policy,” he said. “I think the people who say, ‘Just let the government put stuff on their website’ are missing that.” Karpel expects there will be litigation over ambiguous language in the bill and said that might make government agencies reluctant to ditch newspaper notices all at once.


So the tax assist from local government is getting a broader hearing.

Oregon lawmakers ponder grants for local news

 

I don't think these bills will pass for two reasons.

1. The ire of the MAGA right is directed at the national press and huge social media companies. I don't think the MAGA folks are that concerned at the local paper, which generally acts as mouthpiece for the Chamber of Commerce.

2. State legislators still treasure the endorsements of the local paper. I once worked in a county government. County officials were paranoid about the reaction of the lccal paper, even though the paper did not circulate to the areas of the county where the bulk of the population lived. Politicians are a cowardly lot and will avoid a fight with the publisher.

 

Reasonable explainer here.

Lessons from Southern Oregon’s local news collapse

 

How about our big money, big media oligopoly endow a national fund for local media?

 

For good or for ill, that problem has been solved with the dawn of the internet and the near obliteration of gatekeeping barriers. Virtually anyone can do journalism now. But the right to free speech is not a right to be heard.

 

What organizations are you specifically referring to?

 

They whiffed mightily at this at my paper last year. The city council voted last November to send their legal notices to an out-of-county paper at 4X the cost our paper was charging. They let their money get mad.

They therefore forsook any "leverage" they had over our paper. As if I gave a shit; I'm a reporter and it's not my fight. I'm working right now on a feature story on a local gadfly who shows up at all local city and school board meetings.

 

NewsCorp/Fox, Comcast, Disney, National Amusements (Paramount etc.), Sony, AT & T, Charter, and so forth.

Apple, Google, Microsoft.

The giant players in that space, many of whom grew and benefited from the government licensing of public airwaves.

Huge companies like these crowd out little ones - a process compounded over the last 50 years by the digital revolution.

Especially aggregators like Google, who grew to its immense current size monetizing content produced by others.

It wouldn't take much - a percentage point or two a year - for these monster conglomerates to endow an independently administered fund for local journalism and news gathering.

 

I know Disney had some layoffs recently. I believe CBS is undergoing cost-cutting too.

 

I'm confident both can - and inevitably will - raise prices if necessary.

Disney's revenue last year exceeded $20 billion. Paramount +, the parent company of Viacom CBS, brought in more than $25 billion.

I think some micro-percentage of the money these global conglomerates throw off like sparks in a steel mill would be sufficient to subsidize hundreds of local news operations.