AMNY—Communities across New York have grossly inadequate local news coverage. The national collapse of local and community news has led to a 75 percent drop in the number of local journalists since 2002 – and a shocking 28 counties in New York are below even the anemic national average.
Fortunately, last year the state legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul recognized this problem by creating the landmark Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Program. This first-in-the-nation initiative will provide tax support for local news outlets to hire and retain reporters and supporting staff.
Unfortunately, due to a fluke in legislative drafting, the law left out nonprofit newsrooms.
That’s an unintended but hugely consequential mishap. Many of New York’s remaining local news outlets are nonprofit entities. There are 19 public radio stations that provide community coverage in the Empire State, from the Bronx to Plattsburgh. These stations are already experiencing significant budget cuts because of President Donald Trump’s elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is expected to lead to hundreds of job losses in New York State. The unintentional mistake to exclude nonprofit media from state assistance will only lead to more job losses and local outlets closing, further exacerbating the decline of public media.
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