In the News

On trips to his neighborhood 7-Eleven during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal notices local newspapers coming off the shelves.

“I can tell you the people are picking up these local papers as well as the national papers,” Neal said in an editorial meeting with The Republican and MassLive on Zoom Thursday.

But local news outlets throughout the country, particularly in small and midsize markets, have been hit hard by the coronavirus, which has forced businesses to shutter and consumers to stay home — and advertising dollars to dry up in an industry that was already struggling before the pandemic.

While many local news outlets can seek forgivable small business loans through the Coronavirus Aid, Recovery and Economic Security (CARES) Act’s Paycheck Protection Program, many newspapers, radio and television stations are ineligible because they belong to larger networks or conglomerates with several hundreds or thousands of employees spread across the nation.

Neal said he feels “very strongly” that coronavirus relief funding should support local media.

He said it’s a “chance to highlight” local newspapers, smaller outlets and reporters “who’ve done on-the-ground reporting.” He added that if there was ever a time that demonstrated the importance of facts, “it is now.”

Neal’s comments are aligned with nearly two dozen lawmakers who last month pushed for the fourth COVID-19 relief package to include funds for local media.

Led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, 19 Democratic senators wrote to Senate leadership on April 8 to note that “communities across the country have seen the further decimation of this important industry as local publications have stopped printing and laid off staff in the last few weeks.”

“Local news plays an indispensable role in American civic life as a trusted source for critical information, a watchdog for government and corporate accountability, and a building block of social cohesion,” the senators wrote. “Local journalism has been providing communities answers to critical questions, including information on where to get locally tested, hospital capacity, road closures, essential business hours of operation and shelter-in-place orders. Reliable local news and information has been critically important during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet it has become more scarce. Any future stimulus package must contain funding to support this important industry at such a critical time.”

Any provision should aid outlets “who make a long-term commitment to high quality local news,” the senators added.

In a joint statement last month, the News Media Alliance, National Association of Broadcasters, National Newspaper Association and America’s Newspapers called on Congress to ensure PPP funding was made available to news outlets and to provide the Small Business Administration and Department of Health and Human Services between $5 billion and $10 billion in direct funding for local media advertising “that would be evenly distributed to local media in communities of all sizes.”

An aide to Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana — who along with other Republicans introduced an antitrust relief bill earlier this year that could help local newspapers compete for advertising revenue against larger companies — told Axios that he was focused on ensuring local media can obtain paycheck support through relief already approved in the CARES Act.

The Columbia Journalism Review, in a study on newspaper closures between 1996 and 2015, found that not having reporters around covering municipal spending wound up costing taxpayers money. “Local government borrowing costs significantly increased” in counties where a newspaper had shuttered, CJR wrote.

“Our evidence indicates that a lack of local newspaper coverage has serious financial consequences for local governments, and that alternative news sources are not necessarily filling the gaps,” CJR added.

Facebook announced in late March that it would invest $100 million in local news amid the pandemic, including $25 million in emergency grant funding through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million in marketing to news organizations around the world.

Google, without detailing amounts, launched a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund last month to support small and medium-sized organizations producing “original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.”