Sacramento, CA - Today, the California legislature passed a first-of-its-kind bill to preserve local journalism by creating refundable employment tax credits for qualifying local news organizations regardless of size, speech, and structure that hire and retain journalists across the state.

The Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, or "Community NEWS Act," (AB-2222) establishes a model for supporting high-quality journalism regardless of a qualifying news outlet's size, speech, or structure. As described in News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey's recent op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, it creates a journalist employment tax credit model with a straightforward approach: to preserve local journalism, the bill helps publishers afford to employ and retain local journalists. This nation-leading model builds on existing commitments made by the California legislature to support local journalism, and sets a standard for other state legislatures to follow.

"This bill creates a common-sense model to support the sustainability of journalism in California that lawmakers in other states should want to adopt, and its 'news neutrality' is its greatest strength," said Danielle Coffey, President and CEO of the News/Media Alliance , "We're grateful to bill sponsors Assembly Members Ward and Wicks for championing a model for employing California's journalists that recognizes the diversity of both size and structure of the modern news media industry. We look forward to working with a broad coalition of advocates to urge the Governor to take decisive action and sign this bill into law, ensuring California invests in the journalists and publishers who provide high-quality journalism for the people of California."

The News/Media Alliance further recognizes the unified support across journalism advocacy organizations in support of the legislation, and the commitment to neutrality throughout the entire process. Our industry is better together and stronger united. The bill will now be presented to California Governor Gavin Newsom for signature, and the News/Media Alliance strongly urges the Governor's signature on this measure.