As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place

[Le Roi de Pot]

'A nationwide operation of 1,300 local sites publishes coverage that is ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html

The instructions were clear: Write an article calling out Sara Gideon, a Democrat running for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat in Maine, as a hypocrite.

Angela Underwood, a freelance reporter in upstate New York, took the $22 assignment over email. She contacted the spokesman for Senator Susan Collins, the Republican opponent, and wrote an article on his accusations that Ms. Gideon was two-faced for criticizing shadowy political groups and then accepting their help.

The short article was published on Maine Business Daily, a seemingly run-of-the-mill news website, under the headline “Sen. Collins camp says House Speaker Gideon’s actions are hypocritical.” It extensively quoted Ms. Collins’s spokesman but had no comment from Ms. Gideon’s campaign.

Then Ms. Underwood received another email: The “client” who had ordered up the article, her editor said, wanted it to add more detail.

Another Item for the next congress - fund independent local jouranalism .

[dalton99a]

1. Many people will read that shit, and cannot afford paywalls for real news

This is fucked up

[Sherman A1]

2. This is a policy proposal from Andrew Yang's primary campaign that I really liked on the topic

Local newspapers and websites are withering away. In small towns and communities across the country, the local paper is a thing of the past, leading citizens to no longer have a sense of what’s happening in their local government, schools or communities.

For decades local media flourished supported by local advertisements and classified ads. This model is no longer able to support viable enterprises. Yet the function of local journalism is more important than ever to give people a sense of their own communities.

We should recognize that local journalism has a vital public function and support its transition from independent for-profit businesses to non-profits supported by citizens, local institutions, philanthropy, and the government.

I will initiate the Local Journalism Fund, a dedicated $1 billion Fund operated out of the FCC that will make grants to companies, non-profits and local governments and libraries to help local newspapers, periodicals and websites transition to sustainability in a new era.

"Journalism is a vital function in any community. How can you be expected to vote on local leaders and issues if you don’t know what’s going on? This is a market failure, and it’s clear that this is a space that should transition to non-profits, libraries and public-private partnerships instead of for-profit enterprises in many communities. I’m confident that most small towns and cities will be able to support a local website or paper - we just need to support their transition to a new model that supplements advertising and subscription fees with local institutional and citizen support."