Help Is Here for Local News; Governor Gavin Newsom Passes Community NEWS Act Securing Funds to Pay Local Journalists Statewide

In a historic victory for California’s local newsrooms, Governor Gavin Newsom passed a new piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 2222 also known as the Community NEWS Act, on Wednesday which aims to revitalize journalism in the state. 

The act, introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward of San Diego and co-sponsored by the coalition Rebuild Local News, secured five years of uncapped funding for local news outlets through refundable tax credits that go toward retaining reporters and expanding newsrooms across the state. Newsrooms will receive $20,000 for up to five full-time journalists, but bigger newsrooms don’t have to fear; the act promises $15,000 credits for each additional full-time journalist on staff, and adds another $15,000 on top of that for new hires. For part-time journalists, $7,500 credits are available to outlets. 

Supporters of the bill include more than 180 organizations — about 70 national over 110 local — including the Santa Barbara Independent, Santa Barbara News-Press, Coastal View News, Ventura County Sun, and Ojai Valley News.

“This California win for journalism funding is a win for the public’s right to know,” said Laura Ward, founder of the California Independent News Alliance and publisher of the Ojai Valley News. “It is an important step forward for our state’s 250-plus independent news outlets to begin to build back what has been lost over the last 15 years.”

According to the Local Journalist Index, an annual census on the status of local news conducted by Muck Rack and coalition Rebuild Local News, the United States has lost more than 81 percent of local journalists since 2002. That year, the national average stood at a whopping 40 journalists per 100,000 — today, that number sits at just less than eight. California’s 2026 average is six local journalists per 100,000 people; Santa Barbara County sits higher than the statewide average at almost 10 local journalists per 100,000. 

“I remember my days as county supervisor with a dozen reporters,” said Newsom in a press conference held to sign AB2222 in front of the journalists whose newsrooms it directly affects. “But now as governor of the fourth largest economy on planet Earth, there’s two or three reporters in some cases. That’s not healthy for any of us.”

This bill signing comes in the wake of President Trump’s recent banning of CNN, MSNow, and Politico from the White House press pool, the ensuing boycott of coverage of the president, and subsequent lawsuits that have embroiled the administration and national media outlets in recent weeks. 

“You see darkness in Washington; you see daylight in California. The contrast could not be more acute,” said Governor Newsom, who has yet to confirm his 2028 candidacy for president. 

“Public policy is one way that’s going to be a part of the greater solution for maintaining local news across the country,” said the Santa Barbara Independent’s publisher Brandi Rivera, who also is the president of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and sits on the advisory board of Rebuild Local News. She brought her firsthand experience to the table in shaping this policy as well as advocating for it in the region. 

“Being in Senate Pro Tem [Monique] Limón’s district put us really at the center,” said Rivera. “We’re so lucky that she is a big supporter of the Independent and local news.”

This is the first bill of this magnitude to be passed in the nation; Illinois and New York have similar legislation on a much smaller scale. Depending on implementation, the majority of funding could be sourced from a concurrent conformity bill that targets high earning executives by “eliminating the corporate tax deductibility of executive compensation over $1 million,” according to Rebuild Local News. This money will feed the state’s general fund and then is dispersed to local newsrooms.

“I do think there needs to be work on this bill next year, and I am hopeful the legislature and the governor will work to address those issues,” said Governor Newsom, stating his hesitation to uncapped funding and the fact that the act does not regulate partisan outlets that he describes as “propaganda.” 

He attached a signing statement to the act asking the legislature to “monitor the implementation of this in a thoughtful and judicious way so that its going to the people that need it the most.”

But for him and the hundreds of supporters of this act, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

“This is among the most significant investments any state has made in the people who do the actual work of journalism.” said Annie Sciacca, president of the Pacific Media Workers Guild local of The NewsGuild-CWA. “By tying dollars to working journalists in California, this law helps remedy the crisis of declining news coverage by putting newsroom jobs at the center of the solution.”