When COVID-19 caused shutdowns throughout the Richmond County community, the Daily Journal was there — six feet away with a mask and hand sanitizer — to keep you informed as life as we knew it changed dramatically. We will be there as it continues to strain our lives and threaten childhood education.
When, in the midst of this crisis, the Richmond County Board of Commissioners voted to shift the way sales taxes are distributed in the county with no prior notice given to municipalities, the Daily Journal lead the coverage of the developments as they happened and shined light on details that otherwise would not have been seen.
Local newspapers have been called upon to inform the public during the COVID-19 pandemic and the political upheavals this country has seen in recent months, and yet their continued survival is being threatened more intensely than ever before in the economic fallout from the virus. A new bill in Congress aims to support local newspapers as they do their essential work, and it needs your support to pass.
Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) have worked together to draft the bi-partisan House Bill 7640, or the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, for consideration. H.B. 7640 offers tax relief to small businesses looking to advertise in their local newspaper, to residents who want to take the paper again and to local newspapers themselves to allow them to better compensate their staff.
Unlike other relief efforts, this would not give newspapers a check but rather creates conditions for businesses, readers, and newspapers to work together to support the production of essential local information.
The bill calls for a five-year refundable tax credit to daily and weekly newspapers to help cover a portion of journalists’ salaries for five years up to $50,000 a year. That could help us keep from gutting newsrooms to remain operational.
For readers, of print and digital, the bill would give a five-year tax credit that would pay up to 80% of subscription costs the first year and 50% for the next four. This would be a game changer that would give your watchdog the freedom to keep a check on local power.
Small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees would receive up to $5,000 in tax credits to continue to advertise with their local paper. Nobody can access local customers as well as your local newspaper with tens of thousands of readers in print and hundreds of thousands online each week. Businesses can use those funds in any way they wish and as these newspapers continue to evolve – offering some of the most sophisticated digital components available – we can work together to not only survive but grow our business community.
While businesses were boarded up, while protesters took to the streets and health officials raced to protect the lives of their patients, local newspapers struggled on. We did so with national advertisers pulling investments by more than 50 percent. We did so while Main Street closed down and we did so while trying to rework distribution methods so that we could be, at minimum, operational.
While many newspapers slashed staffs and reduced issue days, the Daily Journal continued to produce a product five days per week. While broadcast media self-isolated, our reporters dove into the fray and wrote about the issues that meant the most to you. How do we educate our children? How do we get our essentials? How do we support a Main Street that is no longer open? How do we keep our community together?
This bill is not a bail out nor are tax dollars being spent. These are credits to help businesses help themselves and help local media do what we’ve done for nearly 100 years: tell the stories that matter to you. We ask you to help us by reaching out to Congressman Dan Bishop (NC-09) and tell him to support House Bill 7640, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
Bishop can be reached at his Monroe, NC office at (704) 218-5300 and at his Washington office at (202) 225-1976.
