Google, Facebook exploited local news for too long. WA lawmakers should make them pay | Editorial

The Legislature could provide a critical lifeline to local news publishers, but lawmakers need a nudge from the public.

If you believe that the local free press is essential to a robust democracy and vibrant communities, reach out to your state representatives and senator, and tell them to support Senate Bill 5400.

Local news has undergone alarming declines over the past two decades. Northwestern University’s Medill School found that from 2004 to 2024, Washington State lost a quarter of its local newspapers and overall newsroom employment declined by about two-thirds.

Revenue has fallen off precipitously, leaving newspaper with fewer reporters, fewer pages and therefore less coverage.

That is not a problem just for the news industry. It is a problem for democracy. American democracy relies on an informed electorate to make good decisions.

The importance of the local free press cannot be overstated. Local news is the backbone of civic engagement.

Newspapers and broadcasters report on city council meetings, school board decisions and public safety issues. They cover community events, youth sports and what’s being built on the vacant lot you drive by every day. They provide the information that people need to participate meaningfully in their communities.

Without reliable local news, misinformation fills the void, leaving communities vulnerable to manipulation and apathy. Public participation drops off, voter turnout slips, and government accountability diminishes.

Some of the news media’s decline was self-inflicted. Many news organizations were slow to adapt to the internet revolution that took place in the early 2000s.

They were slow to deliver news online and often gave it away for free. They also did not seek new approaches to advertising as sites like Craigslist gutted newspaper classified ads.

But much more of the blame rests on social media and search companies that exploit newspapers and broadcasters.

Corporate behemoths like Facebook (now part of Meta) and Google (now part of Alphabet) take news stories and repackage them on their own sites without contributing meaningfully to news production.

They also use their near-monopoly status to impose predatory advertising contracts that pay a pittance on news sites. Newspapers and broadcasters are left without the resources they need to cover their community.

Senate Bill 5400 would provide a boost to Washington news by holding those companies accountable and establishing a grant program to support qualifying news outlets.

“Qualifying” in this case means publishers that employ at least three full-time professional journalists and follow standards for media integrity that include correcting mistakes. For example, the Society Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, to which the Tri-City Herald subscribes, would meet the requirement.

A local news organization could receive up to $15,000 per journalist in grants annually.

This is a tough budget year in Washington. The state faces a multi-billion revenue shortfall. Authorizing new spending is a tall order.

Fortunately, the backers of SB 5400 are not asking taxpayers to fund the news grants. Instead, large social media and search companies would pay a slightly higher business tax surcharge. Only companies with more than $5 million gross revenue would pay, and their bill could not exceed $6 million annually.

In other words, a handful of the biggest, richest tech companies would support the free press that they have been exploiting.

A state grant program for the local free press is not without some risk. If news organizations come to rely on government funding, politics could creep into reporting.

State officials, journalists and news consumers will have to remain vigilant that the media remains independent in years to come.

SB 5400 is not a silver bullet.

Challenges for the news industry continue to mount, most recently in tariffs on newsprint sourced from Canada that have increased production costs. But the bill is one way to support the local free press’ mission of informing Washingtonians about what’s happening in their communities.

As the bill notes, “Quality local journalism is key to sustaining civic society, strengthening communal ties and providing information at a deeper level that national outlets cannot match.”