Journalism Industry Unites in Support of First-of-its-Kind California Journalist Tax Credit Bill

Sacramento, CA – This week, news publications all across California will run a full page ad declaring that the journalism industry is unified in support of AB-2222, the Community NEWS Act, a measure that would create refundable employment tax credits for qualifying local news organizations that hire and retain journalists across the state.

The ad, titled “The journalism industry is unified in support of AB-2222,” lists a historically broad coalition of state press associations, journalism support organizations, independent and nonprofit publishers, identity‑based media groups, labor unions, university journalism leaders, and national industry advocates that support the measure. More than 180 local, state, and national organizations have joined a series of letters that urge California Governor Newsom to sign the bill.

Since 2002, California has lost more than 12,000 local journalists, limiting coverage for tens of millions of Californians. This bill would directly address that decline by creating journalist employment tax credits to help newsrooms strengthen their reporting capacity and deepen their local coverage across the state.

The ad, which will run in hundreds of publications over the next week, reflects the groundswell of support from an unprecedented coalition of journalism industry entities both in California and across the country.

If you have any questions, please contact Sam Quigley, communications director at News/Media Alliance (sam@newsmediaalliance.org), or Ray Garcia, marketing and communications manager at Rebuild Local News (raygarcia@rebuildlocalnews.org).