CBS Newsrecently reported on a bi-partisan bill in Congress called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021.
CBS said the draft law resembles an approach taken by Australia and some European countries that seeks to give content creators a share of the ad-revenue swallowed by large tech companies including Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
The antitrust legislation is one of multiple bills that have been introduced at the federal and state level aimed to help ailing local news organizations.
Another proposal, the Local News Sustainability Act, would use tax credits to incentivize companies to advertise with, and people to subscribe to, local news outlets. It also includes a payroll tax deduction to support reporter salaries.
Portions of the proposed act were included in the Build Back Better bill that passed the in the U.S. House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate.
Similar bills have been introduced by state legislatures in New York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin by both Democrats and Republicans.
Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues. This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier, the students at student radio station The Dog, and the WIU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; Rajvee Subramanian, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.
