Back the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act

I’m not given to writing editorials; instead, preferring to let folks make up their minds on a wide array of subjects without inserting my opinions. However, when it comes to the disappearance of newspapers, this topic touches home.

In the Northland, we have seen the Two Harbors Lake County News Chronicle shuttered. The Duluth News-Tribune, the area’s largest paper, has shrunk from seven days a week to two days a week for its print version.

On the Iron Range, the Hibbing and Mesabi dailies merged so they could offer the local communities one daily newspaper.

Across the country, over 2,000 newspapers have closed during the last 15 years. The pandemic has brought another wave of closures as revenue streams from event cancellations, business disruptions, and competition from social media and websites have winnowed away revenue streams from newspapers.

For lots of folks, getting a local newspaper is important.

How do I know? This last week we received our first delivery of papers from the Brainerd Dispatch, who has taken over our printing now that the Duluth News- Tribune has shut down their printing presses. While most papers got to their destinations, some papers were put in the wrong giant postal bag, and locals received their papers several days late.

I have been assured that this was a one-time mistake, but the phone rang off the hook from readers who didn’t get their paper on Friday.

It was evidence, not the kind I hoped to receive, but strong evidence that people are very invested in getting local news.

I want to be clear that I am a fan of all newspapers. As a newspaper junky, I have received up to four daily newspapers for a long period of time, and now get three per day, two online and one I buy from the news stand.

That’s why I am asking you to contact Senator Amy Klobuchar and tell her you back the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. It will allow small and large communities a chance to hold onto their papers or possibly restart ones that have folded.

The bill is bipartisan. Introducing it were Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ken Buck (R-NY).

From a March 10, 2021, press release Senator Klobuchar, who is Chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Police, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, wrote, “We must enable news organizations to negotiate on a level playing field with big tech companies if we want to preserve a strong and independent press.”

Adding to Senator Klobuchar’s statement, Senator Kennedy said, “Newspapers are locked in a life-or-death struggle with tech giants like Google and Facebook, and it’s not a fair fight. Local papers have continued to deliver news despite declines in circulation, but readers are losing out as their options for news coverage evaporate. This bill would support the independence of local papers by giving news publishers the power to collectively negotiate with digital platforms like Google and Facebook. Google and Facebook aren’t just companies— they’re countries, and we can’t tolerate tech giants strangling their print news competitors.”

The industry is changing and will evolve, of course, but let’s hope it doesn’t disappear. Getting the news from Facebook or Google might appeal to some, but for a lot of us, that’s just not the whole answer. Please contact Senator Klobuchar and tell her you back the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.