Thunderstorms, some heavy during the morning hours, then skies turning partly cloudy during the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..
Tonight
A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
There’s a new bill in Congress to try to help local news publishers like us. Given that we’re the intended beneficiaries, you’re probably not shocked that I’m inclined to support it.
The idea is simple: Give tax breaks to local businesses that buy marketing services from local news publishers, and give tax breaks to news publishers for employing professional journalists. Last year’s bill included a provision to provide tax breaks to individual people who subscribe to small local news publications, but that evidently proved too complicated and so was dropped. Last year’s bill made it nearly to the finish line but got killed in the end.
This time around there’s bipartisan support, including – I would assume – from Kansas’ congressional delegation. The reason is also pretty simple: Everybody recognizes the value and importance of independent professional journalism to the healthy functioning of our republic. For the system to function properly, voters have to be informed of what their government is doing. Without independent professional journalists, they won’t be.
But the economics of the business have been terrible in the past three years, and have been under assault for at least 20 by the digital behemoths on the coasts. Google and Facebook have vacuumed up billions in advertising spending; Amazon has likewise killed off the local retailers who used local news publishers to reach good potential local customers.
The only answer for news publishers has been to cut costs, sell out, or close. Just look around Kansas if you don’t believe me. Independent family-owned outfits have shut down; others, including those in Topeka, Salina, Lawrence and many others, have sold out to larger corporate entities.
Congressional support in the form of tax breaks will help, and there’s a solid argument to support that approach. The bill is called the Community News & Small Business Support Act; it goes by the number HR 4756, if you’re inclined to use that sort of terminology.
That’s clearly not the long-term solution, and so the tax-break bill has a five-year ticking clock. The longer-term answer, in my opinion, is for subscribers to pay enough to support local independent professional journalism. Advertising as the lion’s share of the revenue to support this enterprise is simply going away. So, sorry, folks. That means we’re going to have to charge you more for a subscription. It’s on us to make it worth your while.
Couple other things need to happen: Congress needs to get rid of the law that gives Google and Facebook a free pass by allowing them to get away scot-free with publishing crap that we never could. And Congress needs to allow newspapers an exemption from anti-trust laws so that we can negotiate fairly with those digital behemoths.
Still, I do hope the bill passes, and I’ll be making the case for it to our elected representatives. I will also work to build a new business model to sustain this enterprise for the longer haul. I love it, I believe in it, and I feel that we owe it to you – and to the legacy of those who’ve come before – to make it through this difficult moment to the other side.
In that regard, I hope you’ll also tell your members of Congress that you support it.
