Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald delivered remarks at an April 15 event entitled “For the Love of Local News” sponsored by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. The majority leader spoke about the vital role played by strong local journalism in maintaining healthy democratic institutions. He spoke of the work done by local journalists as “invaluable to the protection of free elections, public policy, democracy and choice among candidates.”
We loved hearing Greenwald’s remarks. We could not agree with him more. Yet the sad truth is that comments like these by state officeholders often fail to lead to actions that support the words. Just in the recent past, the Legislature of which Mr. Greenwald is a leader “overhauled” the Open Public Records Act despite an outcry of opposition from the producers of local news and many others.
This same Legislature, controlled by Mr. Greenwald’s party, is now engaged in a change to state law that could make the already small amounts that local governments pay for public legal notices unnecessary. This is being done with legislative supporters of the bill saying the local governments will no longer have to “subsidize” local newspapers. Anyone who thinks local papers are getting rich on legal notice postings should note that Trenton has not raised the amount papers are paid for such notices since 1983.
The point of the legal notice responsibility is to have a place for publishing the notices where the public is likely to see them and where they are free from any alteration once published. The freedom to place the notices on a local government entity’s website is simply not good enough.
Go to the county website and input your desire to see the county budget and you will be deposited at the budgets for the bridge commission, for example.
The timeliness of when a document goes on a public website often varies, at times significantly. The ease of access to the information can also vary, making the posting of legal notices there problematic.
We are not here to opine on the rules governing legal notices, although one could certainly argue that case both in its substance and in terms of the spirit of some of those who push changes to the legislation.
The point is that it takes more than kind words of support for the local press by a politician who knows the audience he is addressing will welcome them.
Since 2005 the nation has lost over one-third of its newspapers, many of them local papers. The rate of loss has been two and one-half papers closing per week. That is a statistic that should scare us, even as it does not scare those elected officials who have no desire to be held accountable for the way they do their job.
Many local issues that can have major impacts on people’s lives are not going to be covered by the larger, more well-financed national media outlets. They are not going to be picked up by cable news shows. Information on them on social media quickly becomes opinion and half-truth even when that is not the intention. There are no rules governing verification of facts, no editors to serve as challenging referees, no principles governing fairness that must be adhered to.
Tip O’Neill, a former speaker of the House, famously said, “All politics is local.” One can debate his absolute categorization, but it contains truth. What is important to us all is what happens within the community in which we live.
That sense of local relevance is what a local press brings every time one its reporters goes out to cover a story or an event. Local news encourages civic engagement and helps the public hold elected leaders accountable for the quality of governance and the use of public funds. Local newspapers provide the information and often the analysis of that information that inform public discourse.
The old model of local newspapers fully supported by advertising is no longer a reality. News deserts are increasing where communities no longer have access to local news, accountability is weakened and transparency is harmed.
We do celebrate Majority Leader Grunwald’s comments to a room of individuals dedicated to improving the local news ecosystem. We urge him to take the same sentiments into the Legislature, where a concern for transparency in government and support for local news is not very visible.
Local news needs support if it is to survive. Proof of that is the number of outlets that have not survived.
We know we have to transition in a big way to electronic access and distribution. But advertisers will not follow. Online advertising is a whole different world. Readers also will not follow if it isn’t free. The dilemma is obvious. Slow asphyxiation is all too often the result. The more than 3,000 outlets that have closed did not die quickly, but they did do so inexorably.
If local news is doing its job, it probably is angering someone, making some official’s job harder, challenging some official body to be more open with the public. But we stand for relevance, engagement and accountability. We stand for empowering the public and protecting the community.
We need support to play that role.
