The start of something big for local news. Congress must follow New York's lead.

The state of New York, led by a powerful coalition of local publishers, has just approved game-changing legislation in the fight to preserve local news outlets and community journalism. By including a $90 million payroll tax credit for hiring and retaining local journalists in the state's 2025 budget, New York has become the nation's first to take such a major step to protecting this vital industry. This is a commitment to local journalism that the U.S. Congress should urgently build upon.

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Heading into the pivotal 2024 elections, mainstream and social media will be over-saturated with ads. By placing your campaign advertising dollars into local newspapers, your candidate can effectively reach a coveted audience of reliable voters in the information source that they depend on most.

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This educational program, open to members of America's Newspapers, is designed to develop leadership skills and a broader understanding of sustainable business models for local journalism organizations. The program is built to provide newspaper leaders exposure to a wide variety of topics in an engaging learning environment.

America's Newspapers endorses Arkansas government transparency initiatives

America's Newspapers, a leading advocate for the nation's newspaper industry, enthusiastically endorses the Arkansas Government Disclosure Act of 2024 and the proposed Arkansas Government Disclosure Amendment. These initiatives represent a critical step forward in protecting the public's fundamental right to access government records and proceedings and to make government actions more transparent.

Empire State Local News Coalition celebrates inclusion of local media tax credit in final FY 2025 New York state budget

On Saturday, April 20, Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature unveiled the final state budget, which included a payroll tax credit for local news outlets. This credit was modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. With the passage of this bill, New York is now the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists.

ProPublica awarded Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

ProPublica was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the work of Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg. The award was presented for groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct.

Meredith Owensby Harrell has sold Carter Publishing Co., Inc. d/b/a Kernersville (North Carolina) News to Paxton Media Group, according to John Cribb of Cribb, Cope & Potts who represented the Carter/Owensby-Harrell family in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.

Ballantine Communications Inc., which owns The Durango Herald and The Journal in Southwest Colorado, has reached an agreement with Gannett Co. Inc. to purchase the Farmington Daily Times.

"As we gather to consider the nation’s finest and most courageous journalism, the Pulitzer Prize Board would like to recognize the tireless efforts of student journalists across our nation’s college campuses, who are covering protests and unrest in the face of great personal and academic risk." — Pulitzer Prize Board

Scripps appoints new president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Fund

Meredith Delaney has been appointed president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Fund, the philanthropic arm of The E.W. Scripps Company, effective May 8. She succeeds Liz Carter, whose retirement was announced in January.

Edward "Ed" L. Johnson, a longtime executive editor of The Gainesville (Florida) Sun for more than two decades who oversaw the newspaper during its two Pulitzer Prize wins, died April 23 from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 92.

The Kerrville (Texas)  Daily Times welcomed its new publisher, Greg Burney, on April 22. He succeeds Jennifer McCullough, who announced her retirement March 6.