We Actually Have Some Good News for California Media

Anyone working to keep a local newsroom afloat these days knows what an exhausting task it is. We’re fighting a perfect economic storm: corporate buyouts and media consolidation, skyrocketing printing and distribution costs, rapidly shifting reader habits, and a legacy advertising model broken by the digital transition.

The official numbers are grim: Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism reports that California has lost over one-third of its local newspapers since 2005, with the workforce plummeting by 68%. Losses across the ethnic media sector — which are not tracked by mainstream institutions — paint an even grimmer, if less visible picture.

Still, there is reason for hope.

An historic alliance of publishers, state leaders, and California’s private sector has stepped forward with a set of proposals that in effect position local news alongside other basic public goods, like clean water or paved roads.

Together, this unique coalition is assembling the building blocks for what amounts to a vital safety net for the industry — ensuring we can continue serving local communities and, broadly, the people of California.

If you are currently running a newsroom, figuring out payroll, planning your next hire, or simply trying to make sense of the policy landscape, below are newly created state resources alongside legislative wins that we can begin to factor into our business models immediately:

• Putting boots on the ground: The state has fully funded a critical $15 million package for this fiscal year. This is an immediate injection of cash that funds the UC Berkeley California Local News Fellowship (placing fully paid reporters directly into our newsrooms) and the Propel Initiative (providing ethnic and community outlets with the technical and business coaching we need to scale up our back-office operations). Thanks to a hard-fought battle, it was just renewed in the state budget to keep these journalists in our communities through 2029!
• Helping local media hire: Keep a close eye on Assembly Bill 2222 (the Community NEWS Act) as it moves through the Legislature. This bill is designed to establish refundable state payroll tax credits from 2027 through 2032. Under AB 2222, qualifying local newsrooms will receive a $20,000 tax credit for each of their first five full-time journalists on payroll, plus a bonus credit for any new reporting positions we create. Because it’s refundable, even our smallest micro-nonprofits and independent publishers will get direct cash back from the state to support payroll.
• Keeping our dollars local: For years, state advertising budgets have bypassed community media and defaulted to global tech giants. Senator Susan Rubio’s SB 1358 (the Ethnic and Community Media Equity Act) provides a vital template to fix this. The bill mandates that state agencies direct at least 40% of their annual marketing budgets to ethnic and community media outlets. It’s time we stop letting public tax dollars bypass the trusted, in-language messengers who actually reach California’s diverse populations.
• Saving our public and emergency airwaves: To insulate our local public broadcast and ethnic media networks from devastating federal cuts, state leaders are championing an $80 million emergency package. This includes a dedicated $10 million carve-out specifically to protect and stabilize local ethnic media channels.
• A massive, double-your-money deal: The California Civic Media Program (CMP) is actively accepting grant applications until August 21, 2026, at 12:00 PM PT. You can apply for one-time grants of up to $250,000 to support original reporting. Best of all, Governor Newsom and the Legislature just secured a $20 million extension, matched dollar-for-dollar by Google for a total of $40 million across 2027 and 2028. To ensure equity, 13% of this massive fund is set aside as a dedicated, needs-based pool specifically to protect micro-newsrooms that normally can’t compete with larger outlets for philanthropic grants.

None of this happened by accident. These legislative advances are the direct result of our industry — mainstream, ethnic, rural, and digital-first — refusing to fight in isolation and instead coming together as peers in a unified alliance.

We have shown legislators in Sacramento that we are not asking for a handout; we are presenting an investment in the civic health and public safety of 40 million Californians.

These programs are ours. Let’s apply for them, budget around them, and use them to keep telling the stories that keep our communities safe and thriving.

Julian Do is the Co-Director of American Community Media (ACoM), a coalition dedicated to building capacity, technical infrastructure, and business sustainability for local and ethnic media newsrooms.