Media Trends Executive

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Across the country, lawmakers are scrambling to find new ways to support local news as news deserts spread.

Why it matters: A patchwork of state-specific bills and grants can only go so far, and a federal solution is unlikely to pass Congress anytime soon. 

State of play: Recent measures to fortify local news have been introduced at the state level, mostly in blue states.

Illinois last year enacted the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which allots $25 million in refundable tax credits over five years for outlets that hire and retain journalists. 

New York also passed a refundable payroll tax credit last year that allots $90 million over three years for local outlets to hire journalists. 

New York City's 2019 executive order from then-mayor Bill de Blasio mandated city agencies spend at least half of their print and digital advertising budgets on ethnic and community media.

CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism found more than $72 million has since been funneled into the local community media ecosystem.

New Jersey in 2018 dispensed $5 million to an independent "civic information consortium" to support local news. Another $2.5 million in funding was approved in July 2025.

California in 2022 allocated $25 million to fund a fellowship program through the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism that supports reporting in underrepresented areas. It allotted an additional $15 million for fellowships to early-career journalists this year.

New Mexico in 2023 appropriated an additional $125,000 to expand a local news fellowship and internship program run by the University of New Mexico.

Zoom out: These state efforts contributed more than $70 million in additional local journalism investment annually, said Steven Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News, a nonprofit policy coalition.

While that's a significant marker of progress, it is relatively small given the rapid decline of local newspapers nationwide.

Waldman's group is focused mostly on pushing local governments to introduce tax credits that incentivize businesses to invest in local news.

It also advocates for other initiatives, including consumer news spending subsidies, loan forgiveness programs for journalists and state funding for public university fellowships.

Oregon's Senate rejected a bill earlier this year that would have required Big Tech to pay for news content. Meta threatened to pull news content in the state if the bill passed, similar to what it did in Canada. 

D.C. council members proposed in 2023 issuing government-funded vouchers to city residents to donate to local outlets of their choice, but the bill didn't pass.

Kansas, Minnesota and Vermont lawmakers introduced proposals to provide tax credits for small businesses advertising with local news.

Hawaii lawmakers introduced a bill in January that would tax large digital platforms like Meta and Google, similar to a California effort last year. 

What to watch: While federal lawmakers have repeatedly proposed tax credits and antitrust bills to bolster local news, no such measures have been passed into law.

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States eye policy solutions to support local journalism

State programs are pumping funding into local journalism as federal efforts stall.

Illustration of money with a newspaper overlay in a tin can

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Across the country, lawmakers are scrambling to find new ways to support local news as <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="news deserts spread" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2024/10/24/most-us-counties-have-little-to-no-local-news-sources" data-vars-content-id="49e3bf3d-6afa-4ed2-86d7-1fb154b56ade" data-vars-headline="States eye policy solutions to support local journalism" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2024/10/24/most-us-counties-have-little-to-no-local-news-sources" target="_self">news deserts spread</a>.Why it matters: A patchwork of state-specific bills and grants can only go so far, and a federal solution is unlikely to pass Congress anytime soon.

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States eye policy solutions to support local journalism

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