Good things are happening! A first-in-the-nation bill could help save local journalism from vulture funds and prevent news deserts. What’s more, a Supreme Court ruling could help avoid another financial crisis, a millionaire tax yields billions, California tackles corporate homebuyers, and the Justice Department takes on a live-music monopoly.
A Novel Effort To Defend Local News
A first-in-the-nation bill might help curb the troubling decline of local journalism. On May 21, the Illinois state legislature passed a bill requiring local newspaper owners to notify employees and the state far ahead of time if the paper is set to be sold to an out-of-state buyer.
Local journalism across the country is in trouble. According to Poynter, a nonprofit media institute, more than 2,900 newspapers have closed since 2005, leading to the loss of nearly 43,000 journalist jobs. The Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative also found that by 2023, more than half of all counties across the country had either no local news outlet or only one remaining, resulting in “news deserts” that deprive roughly one-fifth of the U.S. population of their access to credible information.
