Legislation to help local newsrooms in Washington is inching ahead but it’s unclear whether it will get approved this year.
Senate Bill 5400 was scheduled for a vote in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee last Friday but wasn’t acted on before the meeting ended.
Now it’s up for consideration again this Friday and has a good chance of advancing, according to Rowland Thompson, Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington executive director.
That would be a Valentine’s Day gift to the news industry. But it won’t be true love unless the full Legislature and Gov. Bob Ferguson follow suit and get it done.
SB 5400 would increase a business-tax surcharge on advanced computing companies. The surcharge is currently used to supplement higher education and student aid funding.
Raising the surcharge would raise around $20 million a year for a program that would provide grants up to $15,000 per journalist employed by local news organizations, whether print, digital or broadcast. Anything collected beyond $20 million would go to the higher education fund backed by the surcharge.
A legislative fiscal note estimates that SB 5400 would generate $24 million in the remainder of the current biennium, though 2027. It would generate $39.7 million in 2027-2029 and $41.6 million in 2029-2031.
The note also estimates the Department of Commerce would employ five people to manage the program. This is surprisingly high, given that the fiscal note anticipates only up to 60 grants per year.
The grants should be largely automatic, based on a headcount formula in the legislation and proportionate to workforce data reported to the state. That would leave no room for subjectivity in deciding grant allocations.
Employing five people to manage the grant program would cost $830,115 in 2026 and $810,115 in 2027, the fiscal note estimates. Employees would do things like “manage grantees” and provide “capacity building support.”
While support for the local-news industry is much appreciated, the state should refrain from overly managing the program, minimize its staffing and do nothing at all to “manage grantees.”
Grants should be treated as hands-off pass-throughs to avoid any appearance of influencing news organizations or selectively supporting any particular outlet or media category.
Various organizations representing media outlets will do plenty of outreach about the grant program.
Heck, I’ll contact every news outlet myself, if that’s what it takes to be sure grant dollars support the maximum number of newsroom jobs.
Longview resumes: Readers of The Daily News in Longview received a bundle of papers earlier this week, as the paper began recovering from a cyberattack that interrupted production across the Lee Enterprises newspaper chain.
I received the update on background from a staffer who wasn’t authorized to describe what happened.
A story published by Lee’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch said a “cybersecurity event” was confirmed Friday by Lee Enterprises CEO Kevin Mowbray. Few details were provided but it said the attack was reported to law enforcement.
The stock price of the Davenport, Iowa-based company was down about 13% over the last five days. It publishes papers in 72 markets across 25 states, several of which reported disruptions, per reports by TechCrunch and The New York Times.
Lee’s only Washington paper, The Daily News, was unable to produce its three weekly editions last week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Production of the electronic edition, which mirrors the print version, was also affected.
Last week’s papers were finally printed on Sunday and brought to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery on Monday, and production is back on schedule this week.
This week’s papers are smaller, though, and look different because the staff had to scramble and design the Longview paper itself rather than rely on Lee’s remote, consolidated design and production service.
Trust issues in Maine: The Boston Globe examined the turmoil at Maine newspapers acquired by the National Trust for Local News in 2023 and reported that the nonprofit is struggling with “persistent financial losses” and may cut jobs and potentially print editions.
“The struggles underscore the enormous difficulties of building and maintaining a sustainable local news business — regardless of who owns it,” the Globe reported.
The trust began with the acquisition of a newspaper group in Colorado in 2021 and now owns 65 papers in Colorado, Maine and Georgia. Its backers include Google and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the story noted.
CEO Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro left in January and several Maine executives, including the group’s CEO and top editors, left over the last year.
The trust acquired the Maine papers for $15 million from a local businessman. They were owned by The Seattle Times Co. from 1998 to 2009.
This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress.
