Promising proposals in WA Legislature aim to help journalism crisis

Washington state legislators are making progress on two proposals to help sustain local news coverage.

Leaders apparently appreciate the severity of the journalism crisis and how it’s negatively affecting Washingtonians, civic knowledge and engagement.

“We’re actually getting some sympathy from civic-minded people on both sides of the aisle which is helpful,” Rowland Thompson, executive director of the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington trade group, told me last week.

Federal support, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, is ultimately needed to bolster a nationwide, independent local news industry. Since 2005 a fourth of newspapers closed and newspaper newsrooms shrank around 60%.

But with journalism bills stalling in Congress over the last two years, several states are stepping up to support local coverage in their territories.

One proposal in Washington calls for a new journalism fellowship program. It would place recent college graduates in reporting jobs, covering civic issues, where local coverage is depleted.

Sen. Karen Keiser, a former journalist, modeled the program after a $25 million fellowship program that California created last year.

Since I wrote about this in September, the Des Moines Democrat refined the proposal with supporters and Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.

The current plan is for a civic affairs reporting program administered by WSU, along with an advisory council including news industry representatives.

In the first year, eight recent graduates of two-year or four-year schools would be placed with media outlets in areas with a dearth of local reporting.

Keiser said the idea is to “cover civic affairs in news deserts,” reporting on things such as local government, commissions, health, education, economic development, underrepresented communities and criminal justice.

Fellows would work for two years at a salary of $55,000, after which they’d receive a certificate in digital media innovation from WSU. Half would be Murrow College graduates.

Keiser plans to fund this through a budget proviso tapping the state’s existing workforce education investment account. The initial budget request is expected to be $2.4 million.

“We do have this workforce education account, which is exactly to do this kind of thing, which is to put money into education programs that have real opportunities,” she said.

In the state House, Bellingham Democratic Rep. Alex Ramel is a primary supporter. He’s inspired in part by seeing the impact of news outlets such as Cascadia Daily News, a new for-profit, print and online newspaper in his city.

“Several new news organizations have recently started in Northwest Washington, and what we’ve seen is a real increase in coverage of important local community and civic issues,” he said in an emailed statement. “I’d love to see similar results in more communities across the state. Better local media coverage makes a difference and pushes government, businesses and community organizations to all work even better.”

Keiser said the first round of fellowships could start in January 2024.

That’s not too far behind the California Local News Fellowship program administered by the University of California, Berkeley, journalism school. It announced an advisory group on Jan. 31 that will be the selection committee for news outlets and fellows.

The Cal program will start taking applications from newsrooms wanting to participate on Feb. 15 and from fellowship candidates on March 1.

Another Washington policy to help local news outlets, a tax credit for news publishers, is also proceeding though it’s not yet a sure thing, according to state Rep. Gerry Pollet, the lead House sponsor.

There is willingness to act, the North Seattle Democrat said, but “the media” is a lightning rod.

“My pitch is that it’s really totally insignificant compared to some that are being considered right now, monetarily,” he said, adding that some object to “a minor reduction in taxes on this and on the other hand turn around and offer massive tax exemption” for something else.

Like hundreds of employers in Washington, publishers are paying a reduced business and occupation tax rate intended to sustain jobs and their industry. This preference is expiring next near, meaning publishers’ B&O tax will increase, from 0.35% to 0.484%, if legislators don’t act.

Senate Bill 5199 and House Bill 1206 would reduce publishers’ rate to zero until 2035 and expand it to include online-only news outlets.

When Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced support for the bills in early January, they were expected to cost the state around $1 million a year. A fiscal note published Jan. 17 estimates it will cost nearly double that over the next two years but that seems high given the current state of taxable revenues.

A 2021 legislative analysis found gross revenues of 109 Washington state newspaper publishers declined 29% from 2015 through 2020.

This mirrors steep declines nationally in the industry. Two newspapers a week are failing on average.

Recent victims of this decline include Seattle’s Chinese Post. It closed Jan. 21, the same day its sister publication, the Northwest Asian Weekly, halted printing and became online only.

The Senate version of the tax preference was advanced Jan. 26 by the business, financial services, gaming and trade committee. It narrowed eligibility of digital outlets, from those publishing at least quarterly to at least monthly.

I encourage people concerned about the local journalism crisis to share their thoughts with legislators. There’s a good opportunity Monday when the bill is scheduled for a 4 p.m. public hearing before the Senate Ways & Means Committee.