By Ella Feathers, CISLM graduate researcher
Since our last legislation update in June 2024, state legislatures have continued to show growing interest in supporting local news, with 38 news bills introduced across 15 states, more than the total number of bills introduced in the previous two years combined. Four of those states, Minnesota, Kansas, Hawaii, and Vermont, introduced legislation for the first time, signaling that interest in this issue is expanding.
This surge in legislative activity is accompanied by another shift in the policy mechanisms proposed to boost the sustainability of local news organizations. Tax incentives remain as popular as ever, but advertising set-asides– mandates for state agencies to spend a specific portion of advertising expenditures with local media– have quickly become a popular proposal.
Since 2017, 96 bills proposing support to local news have been introduced in 18 states and the District of Columbia.
New states introduce bills aimed at funding local news media in 2025
Amidst the flurry of new bills introduced in 2025, four states introduced bills aimed at funding local news journalism for the first time: Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota and Vermont.
- Four bills have been introduced in the Minnesota legislature to create a tax credit for small businesses that advertise with a local news organization and to mandate that half of state agencies’ advertising expenditures go toward local news organizations.
- Three bills have been introduced in the Vermont legislature to create advertising set-asides and tax incentives. An advertising set-aside bill has been passed by the House but was not passed by the Senate before the end of the 2025 session. The bill will continue into the 2026 session.
- One bill has been introduced in Kansas that would create a tax incentive for small businesses to advertise with local news organizations.
- One bill has been introduced in Hawaii that would establish a corporate tax on certain large digital platforms such as Google and Meta, similar to a bill introduced in California last year.
Legislatures Try to Build on Previous Wins to Strengthen Local News
This year, legislatures in seven states that have already passed legislation to fund local news are considering options to increase their support for local news.
New York, where a payroll tax credit for local news organizations was included in the state’s budget last year, continues to see significant activity in their statehouse with seven bills introduced this year. These bills would establish a tax credit for small businesses that buy advertising in local media, require platforms to pay publishers a “journalism usage fee,” mandate an advertising set-aside of 50% of state agency advertising expenditures go to local media, and create a tax credit for subscriptions to local news media.
In the Illinois statehouse, the Strengthening Community Media Act, proposes an advertising set-aside which was left out of the law of the same name signed into law last year. Other bills introduced there include a proposal to require digital platforms to pay publishers for content and the appropriation of funds to support scholarships included in the bill passed last year.
In California, legislators are considering a bill that would mandate a 120-day waiting and public comment period before the sale of a newspaper to an out-of-state or out-of-country owner. California has appropriated more than $20 million for local news through fellowship and grant programs. Last year, bills to establish a tax on digital ad revenue of large tech companies and to require platforms to pay publishers a fee for their content were replaced by a deal between California and Google to fund newsrooms in the state.
New Mexico legislators are considering a refundable tax credit equal to 30% of journalists’ wages for news organizations.
Advocates in New Jersey are pushing legislation to expand funding and eligibility for the state’s Civic Information Consortium (NJCIC), which currently awards grants to civic media across 16 of 21 counties. The bill would also require recipients to disclose the award on their website.
The consortium is also receiving $2.5 million in the 2026 state budget after significant public opposition to Governor Phil Murphy’s initial proposed budget, which did not include funding for the consortium.
A bill in the Massachusetts state house would create a tax credit for local news subscriptions, offering roughly $250 refundable credit for residents buying local digital or print news subscriptions.
A bill in the Washington state senate proposes a surcharge on digital ad and search revenue of certain tech companies to raise around $20 million annually to fund the Washington Local Journalism Corps Program.
Funding mechanisms in state-level bills appear to be changing
Overall, tax incentives are the most commonly proposed mechanism for funding local news, but as has been seen in previous updates, legislative cycles often have their own trends in terms of the strategies proposed for funding local news. In 2023, fellowships were a rapidly growing proposal for addressing the crisis in local news. In 2024, tax incentives had grown in popularity, and now, advertising set-asides are now being proposed as often as tax incentives.
In 2025, 14 bills proposing tax incentives to support local news have been introduced in state legislatures while 10 bills creating advertising set-asides have been introduced– triple the number introduced in the previous legislative cycle. Despite the first bill of this type being introduced in 2022, about 15% bills introduced to fund local news media include advertising set-asides.
There is also growing momentum for waiting periods before the sale of a local news organization to out-of-state buyers. This proposal first appeared in 2024 in Illinois’ Strengthening Community Media Act, which became law last year and established a 180-day waiting period before the sale of local newspapers. In 2025, bills have been introduced in California, Maryland and Connecticut to establish a similar requirement.
Additional research provided by Interim Director Jessica Mahone