Axios reported Tuesday morning that it has obtained a draft of a letter being circulated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Michigan and Texas to be sent to the White House requesting additional relief targeted specifically at local newsrooms.
The report said that Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Bill Flores (R-Texas), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas) are seeking support for a letter to President Trump that calls for federal advertising dollars to be prioritized to local outlets.
According to the report, the letter asks Trump to:
- Direct Cabinet secretaries to speed up planned advertising campaigns to local media outlets.
- Direct federal agency advertising dollars for new and existing programs to local media.
- Incentivize a portion of the coronavirus stimulus funds that are going to businesses be used for advertising on local media.
The draft of the letter says: “We believe that executive branch agencies have a powerful opportunity to support local media and promote public awareness by directing that federal spending on advertising be prioritized for local media outlets."
“Specifically, we encourage federal agencies to put into action today already funded campaigns to achieve certain public objectives as well as potential promotions of the economic stimulus programs provided for by the CARES Act and other recent legislation.”
Last week, America’s Newspapers, the News Media Alliance, the National Newspaper Association and National Association of Broadcasters asked Congress to take action on two measures that would help ensure newspapers, radio and television stations can continue to provide critical news and information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The associations noted that the rapid and likely continued drop in advertising revenue from local businesses is now threatening the very capacity of publishers and broadcasters to maintain their operations. Read more
The need for assistance is evident in additional layoffs, furloughs, closures and other cutbacks announced over the past few days by newspapers across the country.
Among the recent announcements:
- Sara Glines, the president and publisher of The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Gary Wortel, West region lead and president-publisher of The Sacramento (California) Bee, will be leaving McClatchy as part of cost-cutting moves by the company. MediaPost reports that Kim Nussbaum, head of sales projects and business transformation, and Bryan Harbison, planning director, also are leaving the company. Tony Berg, publisher of the Wichita Eagle, is adding the role of McClatchy group publisher, and will have responsibility for the West and East regions. Lauren Gustus, director of community funding initiatives and West region editor, will assume the title of president of The Sacramento Bee. Robyn Tomlin, executive editor of The News & Observer-Southeast regional editor, will add president of The News & Observer to her role. McClatchy also announced that an unspecified number of advertising employees will be placed on unpaid leave of absence through June.
- The Bolivar Commercial in Cleveland, Mississippi, has announced plans to close at the end of April because of economic difficulties exacerbated by the loss of advertising income. The paper, which has been in business for 104 years, currently publishes a print edition on Wednesdays and Fridays.
- The LaGrange Daily News in Georgia is cutting back print editions to two each week — on Wednesday and Saturday. On other days — Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, the LDN will continue to produce a digital e-edition, which will be available on its website. The e-edition is a digital replica of the newspaper.
- Starting tomorrow, the Gainesville (Texas) Daily Register will be cutting back on the number of days that it publishes a print edition. The paper will be publishing five editions per week online and three of those will also be published in print. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, print subscribers will receive the best of the paper's local news and sports stories as well as the coupons and other features they’ve come to depend on in print form. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the paper will publish an E-Paper online with more local news and information, as well as multimedia that can’t be shared in print.
- The Register-Herald in Beckley, West Virginia, is no longer publishing a print edition of the newspaper on Mondays. Subscribers will still have access to all news, features and sports content on the paper's seven-day website, as well as the print editions Tuesday through Sunday.
- The Provo (Utah) Daily Herald is not a daily print newspaper anymore. It no longer delivers a Sunday edition — instead, subscribers will receive a Saturday-morning paper labeled “Weekend Edition.”
- The Oklahoman has instituted one-week unpaid furloughs for all of its full-time employees for each of the next three months.
- The Moultrie (Georgia) Observer ran an editorial recently explaining to readers why the number of pages in various sections have been reduced and why it can no longer afford to publish the expanded Sunday color comics section. "First, the paper explained, "we must reduce our costs because of the free fall in revenue and fewer pages means less expense." Even with all of this, the paper noted that it "will continue to struggle to be able to provide you with timely news and information in print and online, but we are committed to working hard every day to do just that for as long as we can."
- In a recent editorial, the Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press explained to readers why print editions have been smaller over the last week or two and asked readers "for patience as we struggle through the uncharted waters of this pandemic, and work to ensure our survival. We hope readers will keep our staff members in mind as we maintain our roles as 'essential' personnel. And finally, we hope those who don't subscribe will see the value in what we've been doing, and will consider subscribing at least for digital content on our website. We're grateful for the many who have already done so, but we'd be less than truthful if we said it will make a dent in the expenses that are mounting."
