A D.C. bill proposes giving registered voters government-funded vouchers to pay for community news subscriptions .
Normand Meservier, 59, reads a newspaper on the porch while a shelter in place is in effect in Lewiston, Maine, on Friday during a manhunt for the gunman in a mass killing. Ten years ago, a swashbuckling, award-encrusted foreign correspondent gave one of the best arguments for the power of local news.
There’s a local measure in D.C., however, that proposes a voter-powered, government-funded way to keep communities informed and engaged:“Strong journalism is indispensable for a healthy democracy and an accountable government,” wrote D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George , in her bold attempt last week to save local news., a bill that would set aside 0.1 percent of the District’s annual budget for grants to go to local news coverage.
The market simply can’t sustain local newspapers, especially after the internet took over the business of classified ads, movie listings and sports scores. Even the model of a wealthy benefactor vowing a hands-off approach is not immune from disruption. Here at The Washington Post, the metro department is poised to lose nearly a quarter of its workforce under pending buyouts, even though owner Jeff Bezos is among the wealthiest people in the worldI hear it back home from my mom, who is often frustrated when things happen in her community and the local paper — now reduced to two full-time reporters — doesn’t have the bandwidth to cover it.
And there are guardrails to define what a news organization is and who can own it .The bill is meant to start a debate about whether a program like this is needed, Lewis George said. “But we can’t deny that the old journalism model is starting to fall apart, and doing nothing will only continue the decline. Local news is worth fighting for.”
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