D.C. bill would fund local news outlets
D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) has introduced a first-of –its-kind bill that would allocate city funds to support news media outlets that report local news and would authorize registered D.C.
voters to decide which news organizations would receive the funds. The legislation, the Local News Funding Act, calls for setting aside 0.1 percent of the city’s annual budget to create a Local News Grant Program to fund media outlets that report local news, a statement released by Lewis George says.
The statement says the legislation was co-introduced by Council member Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1). “After years of declining revenue, painful layoffs, and discontinuations, the bill would provide a stable source of funding for local journalism that is decided by the public,” the statement says. “Critically, it would be solely up to the residents to determine which news outlets are funded and how much funding they receive,” the statement continues.
Under the provisions of the bill, each D.C. registered voter would receive news coupons to give to their preferred news outlets, and the number of news coupons each news outlet receives would determine its share of the funding.
