FORWARD

by Andrew Yang

Steve and his partners at the National Newspaper Association, the American Journalism Project, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and half a dozen or so other journalism nonprofits have proposed a plan to invest $3 to $5 billion in local journalism and help organizations convert to nonprofits. The Rebuild Local News plan includes a $250 refundable tax credit for each person to pay for a subscription or donation to a local news source, a credit of up to $5,000 for any small business to buy local advertising, and a $300 million fund that would match three to one any donations to a journalism nonprofit. They also recommend that the IRS define public service journalism as a viable tax-deductible nonprofit activity and allow newspaper chains to divest local newspapers into locally owned nonprofits or public benefit corporations in return for enhanced tax benefits. Federal advertising budgets would be spent on local media organizations, and tax credits would be provided for maintaining journalists and staffers. Five thousand local reporters would be sent to local newsrooms through national service programs. The Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which includes some of these measures, has attracted fifty co-sponsors in Congress as of this writing, from both parties. You can see the whole plan at RebuildLocalNews.org.