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The latest news from America’s Newspapers .......................

During this pandemic, America’s Newspapers has been taking the message to Congress and the public that urgent action is needed to provide relief to the nation’s struggling local newspapers. We’re on the verge of winning one battle in this legislative campaign. The third stimulus package, the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or HEROES Act, introduced by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was approved by the House May 15. While this version of the HEROES Act was described as being dead on arrival in the Senate, there almost certainly will be a new stimulus package, and expanding PPP loan opportunities to more newspapers are likely to be part of the package. This act includes something America’s Newspapers, in partnership with the News Media Alliance and other organizations representing local news providers, has been asking for since the beginning of the pandemic quarantine: An affiliation waver that would allow more newspapers to qualify for forgivable Small Business Administration loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by allowing local news publishers to apply as individual, independent entities even if they are owned by larger group publishers. America’s Newspapers is also asking that the Trump Administration direct current federal government advertising funds to local news and media outlets. These public service and informative ads could be similar to the ones running right now about the U.S. Census. They could carry critical government information about data from the CDC, access to small business loans, medical resources for families and other important topics. We’re asking for a commitment that would be spent in an equitable manner across all local news providers. We also believe there should be an immediate relief package that is based on total newsroom employees. Some local news organizations won’t survive without some type of immediate grant or infusion that is tied to the number of the organization’s employees who directly work in the newsroom. In our messaging to legislators and the public, we have emphasized this is not a “bailout” for the newspaper industry. Instead, these measures recognize that local news publishers are on the information front line of the coronavirus pandemic, providing a public service to our communities. AMERICA’S NEWSPAPERS believes one good first step for the long term is the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which has been introduced in both chambers of Congress on a bipartisan basis and will start to address the inequities in how quality journalism is treated and valued by the Big Tech platforms Google and Facebook. Most immediately, we have urged our members to reach out to their congresspersons to support the HEROES Act and for them to run editorials about the importance of federal relief for local news publishers. In an editorial that was offered free to any newspaper or news publisher — and that is still available at newspapers.org, America’s Newspapers CEO Dean Ridings framed our appeal to the public this way: “Your local newspaper provides the news and information unique to your community… But your access to local news and information is gravely threatened by the economic carnage COVID-19 has wrought. “While local newspapers continue to field reporters and bring news and advice from public health authorities in print and online — at considerable cost — their revenues have all but disappeared as the businesses that were their most important advertisers were shuttered. That’s why America’s Newspapers and other organizations representing local news providers are asking Congress to take urgent action to ensure you don’t lose your vital sources of timely and trustworthy information.”