Why Gov. Newsom Should Support California’s Big Bet on Local News

This article first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 11, 2026.

More than 12,000 local journalists in the Golden State have lost their jobs since 2002 as the business models that have long supported newsrooms have crumbled. On Thursday, more than a dozen journalists at Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee and Modesto Bee newspapers were the latest to receive layoff notices in a major chain-wide staff cut by McClatchy Media, including reporters covering critical government watchdog and education beats.

When there are no local news outlets, no one is there to report on decisions made by our school boards and governments. Residents and voters are left in the dark about critical issues affecting their lives and communities. Even worse, partisan misinformation on social media or inaccurate artificial intelligence slop is filling the gap.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a chance to do something about it — something big.

Last month, the Legislature voted to send Assembly Bill 2222, the Community NEWS Act, to Newsom’s desk. If signed, AB2222 would become the largest investment in local news of its kind in American history and secure Newsom’s place as the governor who has done the most to confront the community news crisis.

The bill, jointly authored by Assembly Members Christopher M. Ward of San Diego and Buffy Wicks of Oakland and sponsored by Rebuild Local News, the nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization where I work, is estimated to direct more than $40 million a year in tax credits to support jobs for local journalists who work for digital media, newspapers and broadcasters alike.

AB2222 uses a neutral, First Amendment-friendly approach that embraces the growing diversity of how local news is produced. Recent startups, nonprofit newsrooms and sole proprietors would benefit.

Eligibility is based on a transparent and objective set of rules. No government official would have the authority to review news coverage and decide what is — or, more dangerously, what isn’t — good journalism.

Instead, qualified outlets must have media liability insurance, disclose their ownership and publicly maintain an error-and-correction policy. National news outlets would be excluded. So would partisan “pink slime” sites controlled by political action committees or 501(c)(4) organizations that look like traditional news outlets but aren’t.

A historic coalition of more than 130 organizations, news outlets and unions representing the breadth of the local news industry agrees: This is a good approach. The bill’s supporters include big-city news sites and rural papers, ethnic media outlets and public broadcasters, management and labor. The nation’s community media champions are watching AB2222 closely, with press associations from red and blue states also endorsing the bill.

Even better for Californians, AB2222 is a 2-for-1 deal. The bill would support local news and pay for itself, and even grow California’s strained state budget, according to financial projections.

That’s because AB2222 would also end California’s overlooked and outdated corporate tax deduction for executive compensation above $1 million. This common-sense reform would modernize California’s tax code by aligning it with federal law, which no longer asks American taxpayers to subsidize excessive CEO pay in an era of extreme and growing wealth inequality.

What does deserve public support is local news.

The damage from losing community coverage is economic and civic. Research has shown that when local newspapers shut down, municipal borrowing costs increase because there are fewer watchdogs keeping an eye on local government spending. Local elections have fewer candidates and fewer voters. Even loneliness increases. People rely on local media not just to get information but to feel connected.

The urgency for intervention has been growing. As corporate consolidations like the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger threaten to put national outlets like CNN and CBS under control of one corporation, policymakers in California and across the U.S. are taking action to support local news providers that focus on local communities, local concerns and local voices.

For many local outlets, the biggest challenge to filling coverage gaps on commonly undercovered beats like education and health is simple business math: The cost of hiring and employing an extra journalist usually exceeds the revenue that journalist’s work might bring in via subscriptions, donations and ads.

An increasingly popular answer to that mathematical problem has been to provide tax credits that make it more affordable to hire and employ local journalists, as Illinois, New York and New Mexico have done in recent years.

The first of these programs to launch, in Illinois, has drawn praise from local news providers, with one publisher reporting that the program allowed the outlet to “save jobs and roles that we did not have to make cuts for.”

AB2222’s approach is the best yet.

The bill allows qualifying local news outlets to claim $20,000 tax credits for up to five full-time journalists and $15,000 for every additional journalist. Part-timers are covered by $7,500 credits. Job creation is incentivized with an additional $15,000 new-hire benefit.

Because the credits are refundable, the value would still be awarded to outlets with little to no tax liability, such as the nonprofit news organizations that make up a growing share of the local news sector. And since the program is run through the tax code, administrative costs to create the program would be remarkably modest compared to other approaches.

AB2222 would open the door for rebuilding community news in California.

More local news entrepreneurs could launch outlets in uncovered news deserts knowing that the business environment would be friendlier. More community foundations would sponsor journalists on undercovered beats with the tax credits acting as de facto public matching dollars. California’s smaller programs that provide short-term support, the Civic Media Program and California Local News Fellowship at UC Berkeley, would see their investments go further and drive more growth.

By signing AB2222, Gov. Newsom would leave office with a record of not just supporting local news but laying the foundation for community-based transformations. Local news helps all of us. We can — and should — help revitalize it.