Effort in Congress would support one of America’s founding freedoms — community journalism

Every week, the Daily American Republic is contacted by people with questions about their local government, those seeking to right wrongs, or residents who need help promoting community events.

We can’t help everyone as quickly as we would like, but our staff tries and understands the importance of the words printed in our pages, and on our digital platforms.

We provide a permanent record of the history of region. We hold our officials accountable. We give voice to those whose concerns have gone unheard. We spotlight problems in our community that need to be addressed. We highlight the good people and good things in our everyday lives.

Journalism, real journalism, is a corner stone of American society.

“Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter,” Thomas Jefferson said some 200 years ago.

“Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former journalist Richard Kluger said over a century later.

They recognized that a healthy community needs a free press.

Freedom of press is so important it was guaranteed by our Founding Father’s in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, second only to the freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

By comparison, the Chinese government issues weekly censorship guidelines to its media providers. Their government can never truly be held accountable, because they have no free voice of the people.

Fortunately, members of our Congress also recognize the importance today of a free press and have introduced the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by U.S. Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat from Arizona, and Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state.

The legislation provides for tax credits for subscribing to a local newspaper, payroll credit for paying journalists who provide local news, and credit for advertising in local newspapers and local media.

“This act responds to the insidious way the pandemic has deeply damaged American communities in a malevolent cycle. It forced the shuttering of many local businesses that stopped advertising in their local paper. Newspapers, which have seen their revenues plummet, responded by laying off the people who bring the news or dropping the days they publish. That threatens the access to vital news by people in the community who themselves may be out of a job temporarily or permanently and can no longer afford newspaper subscriptions,” said Dean Ridings, CEO of America’s Newspapers, an alliance of newspaper establishments.

Ridings explains the Local Journalism Sustainability Act would help everyone caught in this vicious circle by:

• Credit for advertising in local newspapers and local media. Businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees would be eligible for a five-year non-refundable tax credit to spend on advertising in local newspapers or local radio or television stations. The credit, up to $5,000 in the first year and $2,500 in each of the next four years, would cover 80% of advertising costs in the first year and 50% annually thereafter. This provision helps local businesses as well as local media companies.

• Credit for local newspaper subscriptions. The act provides for a non-refundable tax credit of up to $250 per year to help cover the costs of subscriptions to local newspapers, in print or digital form, that primarily produce content related to news and current events. The credit would cover 80% of subscription costs in the first year, and 50% thereafter and helps consumers while incentivizing support of local news organizations.

• Payroll credit for journalists. This five-year refundable tax credit could be used by local newspapers on compensation of its journalists up to $50,000 a year. The credit would cover 50% of compensation, up to $50,000, in the first year and 30% of compensation, up to $50,000, in each of the subsequent four years. This provision will go a long way toward ensuring that communities keep their local news coverage.

“This simple yet comprehensive legislation helps the three keys to trustworthy, fair and accurate local journalism: citizens, business owners and journalists. This is not a bailout or handout to any of these elements of a thriving community — but an urgently needed assist with a strictly limited timeframe responding to an unprecedented public health and economic crisis,” Ridings said.

We can all show our support for this effort by contacting our U.S. representatives and asking them to support our local businesses, our local news media and our access to the trustworthy local news that only our community newspaper provides by co-sponsoring the Local Journalism Sustainability Act.

There are currently at least 24 co-sponsors of the effort.

You can reach Rep. Jason Smith at 202-225-4404, or his Poplar Bluff office at 573-609-2996.

— The Daily American Republic