A creative proposal in Washington’s Legislature could save hundreds of local journalism jobs across the state.
Senate Bill 5400 would be a lifesaver for roughly 100 local newspapers remaining in Washington, and for local news broadcasters and digital news outlets.
That in turn would help millions of Washingtonians, particularly in rural and suburban communities where there’s little coverage informing voters and holding officials and institutions accountable.
The bipartisan bill introduced this week would raise a business tax surcharge on large software companies that’s used for workforce training and education.
The increase would raise $20 million a year for a state-administered journalism grant program. Grants could be in the range of $10,000 to $15,000 per journalist.
This approach is unlikely to open a new front in the global battle to get tech giants to fairly compensate news outlets, by negotiating content agreements. But that may give SB 5400 a better chance of passage, and avoid the ferocious opposition and threats that Google and Facebook deploy against news-bargaining policies.
State Sen. Marko Liias, the lead sponsor, told me he’s trying to avoid a clash and get something positive done.
“I definitely feel like the platforms have benefited without compensation from the content that local creators are generating … that definitely is part of the problem,” he said. “But I also don’t think this proposal has to be adversarial. If we get a lot more content generated that’s going to help everybody.”
The Edmonds Democrat, who freelanced for the Mukilteo Beacon during graduate school, saw news outlets’ coverage “wither across time” locally and across the state.
He was spurred by turmoil last year at The Daily Herald of Everett, which was sold to a Southern newspaper chain that further cut the newsroom.
“That’s what really motivated me to action, like, we can’t lose this avenue and transparency and accountability that local journalism provides,” he said. “Trying to think about what navigating my community would be like without that voice and that sort of view into what’s going on around us got me more engaged in trying to find a solution.”
State Sen. Matt Boehnke, a Republican co-sponsoring the bill, similarly saw local coverage dwindle in his district. The former Kennewick City Council member recalled having reporters covering the city and county “and then it just slowly started disappearing.”
Local journalists provide government accountability and are part of our system of checks and balances, Boehnke said.
“I think a lot of this goes back to when we’ve seen this wave of social media and everybody moving online,” he said. “In rural Eastern Washington, especially Tri-City areas, up and down the Yakima, I’ve seen a lot of the degradation of the local newspaper.”
Liias said his goal is to shore up journalism across different business models, including emerging digital publications, weeklies, dailies and broadcasters, and “provide some sustainability into the future.”
Looking at policies in other countries and proposals in other states, “this sort of model of asking the large platforms that are benefiting from using locally produced content to help contribute to the viability and success of those (news) platforms seemed like a fair way of trying to make it work,” he said.
Liias considered a tech surcharge tied to platforms’ use of news content. But he was told by the Department of Revenue that there were overlaps with the workforce-development surcharge on large software companies.
Companies such as Microsoft and Amazon could pay an additional $6 million apiece if the surcharge cap is raised from $9 million to $15 million as proposed in SB 5400.
Liias said a mix of other software companies would also be affected, bringing the bill’s expected revenue to at least $20 million. Any revenue beyond the $20 million for journalism grants would go to higher education, student aid and workforce development.
This is a different approach to helping local journalism than other states have tried, partly because of Washington’s constitutional limits on supporting private companies.
Washington can’t offer a refundable tax credit, like New York did last year, though it did waive business and occupation taxes on publishers in 2023. That measure, saving the industry $10 million over 10 years, passed 89-7 in the House and 47-1 in the Senate.
SB 5400 is more conciliatory than journalism bills proposed in California, the Journalism Competition Preservation Act proposed in Congress and media-bargaining policies passed by Canada and Australia.
They were all designed to address unfair competition between tech platforms and smaller news organizations, by requiring platforms to negotiate fair compensation for their use of news content.
I still think that is necessary at the federal level. Tech giants know professional news adds value and trustworthiness to their platforms, including the last generation of search and the next generation juiced by AI.
Google pledged in 2020 to pay more than $1 billion to license news content globally, and in 2023 reached a deal with The New York Times worth a reported $100 million over three years.
Yet smaller publications that don’t have clout to negotiate such deals are left behind, unable to adequately monetize work that’s increasingly found and consumed via tech platforms.
But Liias is right to be pragmatic. His bill has a better chance of getting passed if it doesn’t prompt tech blowback that torpedoed more ambitious legislation in California last year. California caved to Google and agreed to have its taxpayers share the cost of a scaled-down journalism program.
California’s deal avoided setting a precedent, forcing platforms to negotiate compensation agreements with publishers, which is ultimately what’s needed for their long-term success online.
But until Congress does its part, addressing unfair competition and stabilizing the industry, several states are doing what they can to save these important jobs and local employers.
I’d argue that these state responses don’t let Congress off the hook. They show there’s broad support and need for federal policy, to be sure no states are left in the dark as their local-news industries collapse.
Meanwhile, SB 5400 would keep the lights on and seats filled in Washington newsrooms.
Washington may have around 1,800 remaining journalists, which is down two-thirds after two decades of cuts and consolidation. Grants would save remaining jobs, encourage hiring and prevent further newspaper closures.
Liias acknowledged that some may have concerns about the state funding news outlets but the legislation is designed to be content-neutral and prevent the state from having any influence on coverage.
“I would love a solution that is even more removed but as a state legislator and as the state Legislature, we don’t have all of the possible tools at our disposal,” he said. “This is, I think, a solution, a step … even if we do this for a few years, while we wait for a more cohesive and overarching solution, at least we could stop the losses and the erosion of journalism, it’s my hope, and begin to add some of this coverage back.”
Rowland Thompson, executive director of the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington trade group, summed it up well.
“If somebody’s offering something,” he said, “I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.