Local journalism is more important than ever. Over the past year, as the nation went through one major challenge after another – from the COVID-19 pandemic to the re-ignited social justice movement and the explosive U.S. presidential election in 2020 and its aftermath – people turned to their local publishers to learn how the changes that happen around the world affect your daily lives.
Although the local news has experienced a boom in readers, unfortunately, the revenue from the local news has been yet another break. That’s because companies like Facebook and Google routinely profit from content produced by news publishers. The duopoly earns 70% or more of every dollar spent on online advertising, leaving publishers with the remaining cents to help pay for the news. This imbalance is part of the reason why the news industry has lost more than 28,000 jobs since 2008 and why 1,800 communities have lost their local newspapers since 2004.
In South Carolina, 15 newspapers have closed since 2004, and newspaper circulation has dropped 23%. Twenty-three counties have only one local medium, and one county, Allendale, has no local newspaper.
This kind of loss is a loss not only for the news industry, but for democracy. Each publisher that is forced to close means less information for South Carolina residents. But there is a solution: the Competition and Preservation of Journalism Act.
The project would give news publishers a limited “safe haven” to negotiate with the platforms better business conditions to support journalism. Through the safe haven, all publishers – large and small – could come together to ask companies like Google and Facebook for revenue sharing terms that would allow them to continue to provide their communities with the high-quality journalism on which they depend.
As highlighted by recent developments around the world, including the European Union and Australia, the world is moving towards a new and more equitable compensation system for publishers. Without fair compensation for editors, the media cannot pay their journalists, and without journalists, Americans are at a much greater disadvantage than information.
It is simply impossible for most individual news publishers to challenge the basic terms offered by online giants. The platforms are very large and very influential.
If the safe haven is breached, South Carolina publishers will benefit from better business deals with technology companies, giving them what they need most to continue to give readers the news they need most.
South Carolina editors need senators and representatives from their states in the United States to support high-quality journalism by sponsoring the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. It is only with their help that local news producers can continue to serve their communities and offer readers the kind of quality journalism they expect and trust.
David Chavern is president and CEO of News Media Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit that represents nearly 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform business.