News-media roundup: Local journalism-funding bill filed; source-protection bill moving; another paper goes nonprofit

A new, bipartisan bill with tax credits for local journalism was introduced in the U.S. House Thursday. H.R. 4756 would give payroll tax credits to news media publishers who employ fewer than 750 people and create original content that serves the needs of a regional or local community. The credit could be as much as $25,000 per journalist in the first year and up to $15,000 in the following four years. Local news outlets' small-business advertisers would get credits of up to $5,000 in the first year and up to $2,500 in the subsequent four years if they have fewer than 50 employees.

Rep. Claudia Tenney of upstate

New York, who has been in the

newspaper business, is the main

Republican sponsor of the bill.

The bill is "a conceptual and political breakthrough," Steven Waldman, chair of the Rebuild Local News Coalition, writes for Editor & Publisher. "It makes sense because saving local news should not be about saving journalism jobs per se. It should be about strengthening communities. Politically, if we are to succeed, we need to expand our group of friends beyond other journalism trade groups. A similar bill proposed by Republicans in Wisconsin drew endorsements from the associations representing restaurants, taverns, convenience stores, banks and dentists. . . . We know that passing legislation in this Congress will be a long shot. But this creates the foundation for passage and, in the shorter run, can provide a blueprint for bills in state legislatures."

The legislation is called the Community News and Small Business Support Act and has a long list of endorsers, including the National Newspaper Association and seeveral state press associations. The endorsers include Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog), which is on the steering committee of the coalition. He says, "This bill is one answer to the question we continue to ask: How can rural communities sustain journalism that supports democracy?"  UPDATE, July 24: The bill's Democratic sponsor, Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, discusses it with Brier Dudley, free-press editor of The Seattle Times.

SOURCE PROTECTION: A bill to protect journalists from revealing their sources amid pressure from the federal government cleared the House Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote Wendnesday, "an unusual show of bipartisanship on a committee often at loggerheads," reports Tim Johnson of Deadline. "The Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying Act, or PRESS Act, is a response to instances of law enforcement agencies secretly seeking court orders emails and phone records from reporters in an effort to determine their sources. Lawmakers noted that such instances took place during the Trump and Obama administrations. . . . The bill also restricts efforts to subpoena a journalist’s information from a third party — like phone and internet providers — and gives reporters get an opportunity to challenge such subpoenas in court." There's a companion bill in the Senate.

NONPROFIT AND FREE: The family that owns The Times-Independent of Moab, Utah, is donating the paper to The Salt Lake Tribune, which has been a community-owned nonprofit since 2019. It's one of two weeklies in Moab, with the 10-year-old Moab Sun News, and that's probably why the Trubune is trying a new business model: free circulation to every address in the Zip code and free access online. “That greatly increases the advertising value of the paper,” Publisher Zane Taylor said in an interview. “It’s just a different business model for the future.” In a letter to readers in Thursday's edition, Taylor said the move was “important for The Times-Independent to evolve so it remains essential to all Moabites.” The weekly's local reporters and editors will remain in place, the Tribune said. Sarah Scire has a report for Nieman Lab.

CAPITOL NEWS: Capitol News Illinois, a nonprofit newsroom, is adding news veterans Jennifer Fuller as broadcast director, to expand its offerings to stations, and Molly Parker as part of the investigative team. Parker wiorked with CNI’s Beth Hundsdorfer on the award-winning “Culture of Cruelty” series about patient abuse at a state mental-health center in southern Illinois.

A SALE: HD Media of Huntington, W.Va., which owns the newspapers there, in Charleston and other West Virginia communities, has bought its third weekly in Virginia, The Southwest Times in Pulaski. It bought the Virginia Mountaineer in Grundy and the Lebanon News in the last year.