Rebuild Local News, a coalition representing more than 3,000 local newsrooms, funders of local journalism, and civil society organizations advocating for a healthy free press—including Report for America—today placed its support behind the newly reintroduced Local Journalism Sustainability Act for the 117th Congress. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) introduced the bipartisan bill
A coalition representing more than 3,000 local newsrooms, funders of local journalism, and civil society organizations advocating for a healthy free press—including Report for America—today urged Congressional leaders to bolster support for America’s community news organizations in the infrastructure bill. “Local news is a pillar of democracy’s civic infrastructure — and it is crumbling,” began
Report for America—and a coalition representing more than 3,000 local newsrooms—today took the unusual step of backing a plan for the government to dramatically help local news while maintaining strong First Amendment safeguards. The proposal is backed by organizations representing weekly newspapers, nonprofit websites, Black newspaper publishers, Hispanic publishers, independent news websites, free speech advocates,
Report for America was created to help save local news. It was launched long before COVID-19, yet the signs of local journalism’s collapse were quite evident even in 2014. The pandemic has accelerated the decline and created an imminent crisis. Even before COVID-19, local newspapers had lost more than half their jobs since 2008—about the