When Virginia became the 10th and final necessary state to ratify the Bill of Rights on Dec. 15, 1791, those founding fathers probably didn’t realize that 232 years later part of the first of those 10 constitutional amendments would still be so important … yet struggling to thrive. Throughout our nation’s history, freedom of the press has been a firm guidepost for our country and how the news media can and should be used to hold governments and others accountable to American citizens. And while this fundamental right has survived many threats over the last two centuries, the crisis facing the journalism industry today is hitting closer to home. Literally.
An unusually diverse group of journalism leaders gathered recently at the Times-Union of Albany’s headquarters to discuss why local journalism is more important to our democracy than ever, and to urge attendees to support a proposed state legislative solution. The group featured a prominent national voice: journalist, columnist, and industry observer Margaret Sullivan, formerly of the Buffalo News, New York Times, Washington Post and The Guardian. Sullivan will soon head to Columbia University as head of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalistic Ethics and Security. She minced no words when it came to describing former President Trump as one of the serious threats facing our democracy; one that could be countered by a thriving, trusted local press community. “I cannot help but see the dangers of a second Trump presidency … the things that would happen in a second Trump administration would change American government very drastically, for the worse,” she said.
A better supported and financially healthy local press community, she continued, would more effectively serve readers, viewers, and listeners by concentrating more on the potential stakes of an election and focusing less on the “horse race, who’s leading” aspect of political contests.
What made the Nov. 15 panel discussion effective was the array of voices participating with Sullivan: an editor, union leaders, an industry association leader, a state legislator, and a newspaper publisher. It’s not often, for example, that you see a local union leader like veteran Times Union reporter Kenneth C. Crowe II stand next to Times-Union Editor Casey Seiler to push a similar cause. But this is not the same world that existed when both entered the business decades ago, a time when local newspapers thrived on an advertising revenue stream that withered as the internet arrived. Thousands of local newspaper reporting jobs have been lost over the past decade, as local weekly and daily newspapers across the country shut down.
Seiler, whose newspaper has drawn accolades for its coverage of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration during the pandemic and other scandals, spoke frankly about the loss of local news media outlets around the U.S. “What’s lost … the loss of community when you don’t have a paper that serves as something of a town crier.” As local papers have closed, he said, “bullshit rules the day.” The danger is when professional local reporting is replaced by social media and gossip, he added. “When that becomes the currency of information in a community, a community begins to die inside,” he said.
Seiler, Sullivan, and the other panelists urged attendees to call state legislators and support a proposed bill that would provide a payroll tax credit to New York-based newspapers, helping them retain existing journalists and add new ones. The bill would sunset after five years and contain “guardrails” that Sullivan said would prevent state government from influencing newspaper coverage. The bills are Senate 625B, and Assembly 2958C.
I’m writing about this issue because it’s a lifelong passion of mine. While I still consider myself a student of communications and journalism, my wife and I started our professional lives as daily newspaper reporters over four decades ago in Massachusetts. I was consumed then with the importance and relevance of my job in local journalism … and I still feel the same way today.
In addition to Seiler, Sullivan, and Crowe, speakers on the panel were: former Daily Gazette editor and current New York Press Association official Judy Patrick, National News Guild/CWA President Jon Schleuss, and Mark Vinciguerra, publisher of Capital Region Independent Media, which publishes seven newspapers in Upstate New York and Vermont.
Here’s a link to a video of the event.
