COVID-19 could kill community newspapers. Here’s what California can do to save them

The events of the last month have dramatically altered the trajectory of most Americans, as the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed our health care resources, forced changes to familiar patterns of daily life and tested our ability to adapt to new and challenging circumstances.

Through all of this, California news organizations have been on the front lines, inquiring, authenticating and reporting information Californians rely on to help them make well-informed decisions. While Californians get their news from many sources, including television, digital platforms and social media, when people want to know what schools are closed, where hotspots are located, what to do if they suspect they or a loved one is experiencing symptoms of the virus, they turn to their local newspaper.

But that vital coverage is gravely imperiled – not just by the coronavirus pandemic, but by an economic crisis that threatens the very existence of the news industry.

Even before COVID-19, newspapers were operating under increasing financial pressure. Over the past 15 years, more than one in five papers in the United States has closed down and the number of journalists has been cut in half.

But the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated an already precarious situation, with many large businesses putting their advertising on hold – a development that is a crippling blow to California news outlets.

In the last few weeks alone, six California newspapers wholly dependent on local advertising have suspended their operations; other papers have laid off many of their employees, begun furloughs, or asked news staff to take pay cuts to cut costs during the economic slowdown. At least four additional community newspapers and one ethnic newspaper report they plan to close their doors beginning in May. There will inevitably be more.

As Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature work to reestablish jobs, rebuild our state economy and preserve critical business sectors, they have an unprecedented obligation and opportunity to save the daily and weekly newspapers, ethnic and community publications and online news outlets that keep our state’s residents informed and our communities strong.

First, policymakers must recognize the essential role of newspapers and provide priority funding to California news organizations that have incurred losses during the pandemic. The state has already affirmed this role in the governor’s executive order. In addition to prioritizing health providers, first responders, and other essential industries, emergency funding for newspapers will keep the doors open for news outlets to continue reporting as the U.S. rebuilds and transitions into a new normalcy.

Second, the State Legislature can direct state agencies to prioritize local news and ethnic publications for placement of public outreach advertisements. This idea, suggested by Columbia Journalism Review, will help California news organizations inform the public about resources and key public health information now, as well as in the future.

Third, the state should grant an extension of the law that allows newspaper carriers to be classified as independent contractors under the Borello standard. The catastrophic loss of advertising, coupled with the increase in costs associated with reclassifying newspaper carriers as employees, would cripple a large swath of the state’s news organizations.

And finally, the California Legislature can incentivize subscribers and advertisers to continue their financial support of the news industry. Californians should receive tax deductions if they subscribe to their local news organization. The same goes for advertisers that continue to place their messages in printed and published newspapers.

Newspapers should also be exempted from paying sales tax until the economy recovers from the crisis. Removal of the sales tax on newspapers would eliminate a major impediment to subscription and single-copy sales of newspapers, and increase circulation of newspapers in California communities. California newspapers are the only news medium that pays a tax on the sale of information they provide to California readers.

It is unimaginable to consider how Americans could have responded to a growing pandemic in a world without a robust news media. Gov. Newsom and the Legislature can ensure that we don’t have to function without information in the future by enthusiastically and unanimously supporting legislative and budgetary proposals that will preserve community newspapers long after COVID-19 is behind us.