The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) will devastate small, local news publishers
A pending bill in the California state legislature, the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), has sparked intense debate across the journalism ecosystem. While we commend these legislators' intention to support a healthy and vibrant free press, we are deeply concerned by CJPA’s troubling implications and its potential to disproportionately harm small, independent publishers.
As the Fund for Equity in Local News, we provide training, support and funding to more than 500 community publishers across America from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN), the National Newspaper Publisher Association (NNPA) aka “The Black Press,” and the National Association of Hispanic Publishers (NAHP).
While it may not seem like the publishers we serve – plucky alt-weeklies, LGBTQ+ periodicals, Spanish-language community readers, and historic Black publications – have much in common, these outlets all share similar missions: serving their neighbors with local news and information, supporting small business owners, hosting events and connecting community members. And these entrepreneurs we work with also share many of the same problems; especially limited access to technical resources and funding.
The Google News Initiative has been a consistent champion to our publishers since we launched the FELN collaborative in 2021. Leaders at the GNI worked hand-in-hand with each of our associations to support our conferences and create targeted Lab experiences for our publishers. Moreover, the GNI has provided news publishers all over the world with tools and resources to help journalists strengthen their digital skills, build an engaged community of readers, and achieve sustainability.
In 2022, with the support of GNI, we launched Transformation Tech, an ambitious digital accelerator that will equip 240 of our publishers with a virtual digital transformation curriculum, top-flight executive coaching, engagement with industry leaders, and grants to support digital revenue projects in their own newsrooms. Thanks to Google and Transformation Tech, we’ve already distributed $2.2 million in grant funding to these publishers over the last nine months, with three more cohorts to go in the current program. It is, without question, the most significant philanthropic investment ever directed toward the publishers we serve.
We fear that the CJPA legislation in its current form will hurt our local and community publishers far more than it will help. Losing Google as a funder and support partner, not to mention the ability to connect with audiences through Google Search, would be devastating to local publishers. Given their small size, any gains local and community publishers would see from this legislation would be minimal, with the largest corporate-owned media outlets (many owned by hedge funds and based outside of California) vacuuming up the lions’ share of available revenue. CJPA’s legislation will also harm communities of color and dual-language communities in California by making it more difficult for them to find critical news and information they need.
What’s more, legislation passed in California could serve as a model for legislation in other states. We urge legislators in California to consider alternative models for supporting a healthy, independent local news ecosystem and to listen to the needs of community and ethnic media before making a reckless decision with potentially grievous consequences to the entire U.S. news ecosystem.
Ashley Woods Branch is the Executive Director of the Fund for Equity in Local News
