It's a tough time for journalists across the country, including in Washington. Newsrooms are shrinking, jobs are being cut, and Congress has eliminated federal funding for public media.
But there are efforts to support journalists here. In the Washington Legislature, a revised version of SB 5400 would help news organizations get compensated by big tech companies profiting from their content. And Washington State University’s Murrow College of Communication has just launched a partnership with Report for America, with the eventual goal of placing a reporter in every county in the state.
KNKX Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick spoke with Brier Dudley, editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press initiative.
Brier Dudley's columns are published in the Seattle Times.
Interview Highlights
Washington media struggles
It's a pretty difficult time. The industry is critically important to democracy and civic engagement. We all know all about that. But over the last 20 years, we've lost about three quarters of the newspaper reporters in the United States, and we've lost about a third of the local newspapers.
And I talk a lot about newspapers because I'm a newspaper guy, but also because newspapers still, even in their diminished state, provide most of the local news.
And we're a little bit lucky in Seattle because we have a relative abundance of local news. We have great broadcasters, we have some interesting web news outlets, we have nonprofits, we have The Seattle Times. But the real crisis is in the local and the regional communities.
Stalled legislation
The primary bill in Washington state to help save newsroom jobs at newspapers and broadcasters and online outlets — it's bill title is SB 5400. What it would do is it would help news organizations get compensated by big tech companies that are profiting from their content.
Now there's been similar legislation proposed in other states, and actually nationally. Every time it gets close to getting passed, it gets beaten down by the powerful tech lobby, however, and I think we're seeing that happen in Washington state as well.
If SB 5400 happened, it would generate about $23-$25 million a year that would be distributed to news outlets based on the number of journalists that they employ. This is not ideal. We would much rather not have to be in the situation where government needs to intervene to save this essential industry. But the business flywheel that supported local journalism for 100 years is kind of falling off the hub.
Slim chances for now
There are a lot of legislators that are all for this. They're very focused, though, on the big reforms to our tax code in Washington and income tax they're proposing and things like that. So, honestly, the chances of 5400 passing this year are slim. But the way it was described is: You start building momentum, you build awareness and then you come back, and it might take a couple of years. I hope that's the case.
New partnerships
WSU created [the Murrow Fellowship] two years ago, you know, I actually floated that idea in my column. Sen. Karen Keiser, who's no longer an Olympia, got this thing rolling. It's kind of like a Peace Corps model to place reporters all around, you know, The Seattle Times Company has one in the Yakama Herald Republic. It's been terrific.
But the state last year cut its funding about in half. And so the program was kind of tapering down until WSU made an agreement with Report for America, the Boston-based nonprofit that does this nationally, to expand the program. There's a lot of details to be worked out, but it's a very exciting concept.
And, you know, what I really love about it is this idea that every county needs to have a minimum level of local journalism covering municipal affairs so that voters in every county can at least have a bit of local objective journalism helping them.
Editor's note: Independent of the newsroom, KNKX advocated for the legislation to fund journalism in Washington.
