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* Press release…

Gov. Pritzker Signs Legislation Creating the Local Journalism Task Force

Task Force Aims to Promote and Aid Local Journalism

Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill 134, which creates the Local Journalism Task Force. The Task Force will conduct a comprehensive study of the status of journalism and make recommendations for improvement to the Governor and General Assembly.

“Many communities across our country have become news deserts – through this legislation, Illinois is taking a step toward addressing that challenge,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Robust local journalism is vitally important and I look forward to reviewing the recommendations from the Task Force as we seek to maintain and grow a strong press corps in Illinois.”

“I’ve dedicated years of my life to journalism, so I understand the importance of having access to local news,” said State Senator Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford). “People deserve to know what’s going on in their community, regardless of where they live.”

“Many of the residents of the state are deprived of comprehensive local news coverage,” said State Rep. Dave Vella (D-Rockford). “Local news coverage provides a shared sense of community and a vital check on local government. SB134 creates a task force that seeks to find out what can be done to save it.

Senate Bill 134 creates the Local Journalism Task Force, which will:
• conduct a comprehensive study relative to communities underserved by local journalism in Illinois,
• review all aspects of local journalism including, but not limited to, the adequacy of press coverage of communities, print and digital business models for media outlets, the impact of social media on local news, strategies to improve local news access, and public policy solutions to improve the sustainability of local press business models and private and nonprofit solutions, and
• submit findings and recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly by January 1, 2023.

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will be required to provide administrative and other support to the Task Force. The Task Force is also required to meet a minimum of five times.

The membership of the Task Force will consist of the following 15 members:

• one member of each chamber appointed by the caucus leader,
• one member appointed by the Governor,
• one representative of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University,
• one representative of the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield,
• one representative of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
• one representative of the School of Journalism at SIU-C,
• one representative of the Illinois Press Association,
• one representative of the Illinois Broadcasters Association,
• one representative of the Illinois Legislative Correspondents Association,
• one representative of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association,
• one representative of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council, and
• one representative of the Illinois Municipal League.

SB 134 is effective January 1, 2022.

The legislation was supported by numerous publishing/broadcasting groups.

* The Question: What are your suggestions to improve local news?

*** UPDATE *** How about we start with not running ubiquitous and goofy stories like this?…

A Freeport lawmaker wants the state to let local school boards and health departments determine if students and staff should wear masks at school.

Rep. Andrew Chesney (R) filed HB 4131 on Friday. […]

Rep. Chesney hopes the bill be discussed during the state’s Special Session on Aug. 31 to discuss the political maps.

Um, yeah, no. The bill hasn’t even been assigned to a committee yet and the only way it will be “discussed” during the special session called for a specific purpose that has nothing to do with masks in schools is if Chesney gets up to speak about it during a lull. A quick phone call could’ve cleared that up.

Facebook is helping kill off local journalism, but that doesn’t mean local news stories ought to be just like Facebook posts. How about, maybe, you know, report the thing out a bit? There’s literally nothing in that story which actually challenges Chesney’s claims.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:26 am

Comments

Start paying journalists and quit having venture capitalists and hedge funds buying newspapers.

Comment by Frank talks Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:29 am
Best way to improve local news is to have local reporters
Today’s papers are filled with AP stories Washington Post etc reports. I want my local paper to carry local stories

Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:33 am
Sadly, the best way of improving local news may be for rich people to buy or create media outlets and run them as a public service.

Comment by Keyrock Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:38 am
Invite Block Club Chicago to your meetings.
Listen to them.
Repeat what they do.

Comment by Asteroid of Caution Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:38 am
Why not have independently certified journalists? Not everyone who writes for the news has been trained in journalism. Perhaps it ought to be like the Bar Association? Have journalists police and license their peers to weed out all of the flacks who pretend to be journalists?

The Guild used to perform a lot of this, but guild jobs are few and far between these days.

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:44 am
How will state government improve local news? As a former journalist, I’m of two minds here. Clearly the local news business model is broken, but I hope they are not seeking government funding for the news. I can agree with tax breaks or other similar considerations for not-for-profit or for-profit entities that provide local news coverage. But doing so may also reward the very same vulture investors that are ripping apart the Tribune. There are no easy answers here.

If anything, I would argue for a place at the this table for journalists like Rich Miller because clearly his business model is successful.

Comment by Suburbanon Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:48 am
On the TV side, ban weather live shots from highway overpasses, and ban live shots at ten from locations where the event has been over and everyone gone home more than five hours.

Local TV pays peanuts for photographers and reporters, and their budget and logistics drive an incredibly superficial kind of “coverage”. I experienced this myself at an event I attended. The camera person showed up late, shot around three minutes of the event, and left. That night our event got the standard 90 or so seconds on air, but they really didn’t convey our “story”.

Government and social issue “beats” are nearly dead. If a story doesn’t come with attractive visuals, it gets spiked.

This isn’t going to change, because it’s driven by commercial concerns. Your only real hope is in the creation of foundations for print, radio, web and TV that fund actual journalism without worrying about selling products. Those will always be seen as having their own agendas, so you have to structure the thing such that it provides Impartial coverage. Basically a PBS news op or AP bureau, on a neighborhood level.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:51 am
Looks looks like a representative group from the political / journalism perspective but would also like to see members with a technology/ business background for brainstorming solutions. What are local news source options? What models are evolving? It has to be financially viable.

Comment by Res Melius Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 10:57 am
Money.

Local print, tv, and radio having enough money to pay experienced, trained professionals to stay in smaller markets and develop, not only reliable sources, but a relationship with local leaders.

And to that I say, good luck.

Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:02 am
I think that the biggest challenges to local news is increased technology and increased transparency have disrupted the market. City council meetings are livestreamed and can be watched from the comfort of one’s couch. The council packets are posted on the internet. Innumerable Facebook and blog posts will regurgitate the information. All of this information is free. Why would someone pay for it? Most local-government reporting rarely gives more information than what is freely available with the click of a mouse.

Comment by duck duck goose Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:09 am
Besides more resources, tbh locally here they need to be a bit more adversarial and a bit more inquisitive. There is one reporter/columnist in particular out here who always sees the glass not only half full but filled with happiness and puppies.

Need to ask some harder questions once in a while.

Have to say a bit disappointed they don’t have someone from the NIU Journalism program (lots of NIU alums in local media)

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:10 am
Without local news, how will we know when something was trending on twitter or facebook 2 days ago?

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:11 am
Local news outlets need to find a way to get relevant via Streaming/Social Media. Local news continues to die a slow death - this 5-year-old data from Pew is eye-opening…

Relatively few Americans ages 18 to 29 (15%) follow local news very closely.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2019/08/14/older-americans-black-adults-and-americans-with-less-education-more-interested-in-local-news/

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:13 am
Any daily newspaper in Illinois which plans to cut back at least one day of publication (which hasn’t yet happened at the SJR but I would not be surprised does in the next few years) should be required to hold public hearings and meetings with community leaders and public officials in the circulation area to outline the adverse effects of these cuts.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:15 am
One other observation, the demise of local news hasn’t been a newsroom/reporting problem. It’s been a business model/business side problem.

Until you fix the business side (which often doesn’t seem to want to be fixed) you likely won’t see any improvement on the newsroom side.

Comment by Asteroid of Caution Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:16 am
Yet another task force. Time will tell if this goes the way of so many, no meetings, appointments taking months or years, no results.

Comment by Right Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:19 am
I like what 47th Ward posted. trained journalists…from schools that teach journalism….have standards. that is how journalism should be conducted. we who interact with journalists need to know that we are on the record when we talk to them and unless we say off the record, maybe even not for attribution or deep background they might transmit something that could tell people exactly who talked to them. but some in the media are not trained nor responsible. listen to 47th Ward.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:21 am
I find this task force to be a bit bizarre. A government task force on journalism? Huh? Journalism is and should be completely separate and apart from government. God forbid you have government funding because there’s no surer way to neuter the press than to give them dual loyalties with one of their masters being a government funder.

That said, obviously the business model for journalism is broken and it’s being filled with cranks and crackpots with an agenda. I don’t have an answer. And simply relying on your favorite billionaire doesn’t often work. On the one hand we have the phenomenal role Bezos has played by investing in the Washington Post. On the other you have the cancerous role people like Ferro and entities like Alden have played. So yea, I have no good answers.

Comment by Southern Skeptic Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:26 am
I would love to see Block Club start covering suburban Cook County, possibly by township.

Comment by wndycty Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:32 am
Absent a completely unrealistic massive infusion of cash, I have no idea how to save local journalism.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:43 am
To improve local news you have to cover local news. When the Belleville News-Democrat has one reporter covering thirty cities/towns not much of that can get done.

Comment by Collinsville Kevin Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:48 am
I read the book “300 Lake St” by the guy who was the editor of the Courier News.

It’s very interesting, and he goes into the economics of newspapers.

You need local advertisers. Chains buy media nationally, not locally.

He also discusses a situation where he had to tell a reported to better source a story before they would run with it.

How many examples of bad or single sourcing can we find in the past year? More than a few.

Comment by Fav Human Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:49 am
I think local news as we knew it in the past is dead. Too much competition. Niche sites such as Cap Fax for Illinois politics or following my favorite Sports teams on Twitter or a niche site dedicated to your favorite team provide fat better coverage about the things I care about than the SJ-R or a local paper ever could.

It’s not the journalists at these outlets fault as they’re required to provide coverage of such a large and diverse range of topics and have limited resources to do so, but they’re in a game they can’t win. And it’s not just at the local level, YouTube and streaming services has knocked ESPN and other Cable outlets through a loop and they are trying to figure the same types of challenges out themselves.

Comment by AD Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:52 am
– need to be a bit more adversarial and a bit more inquisitive –

A bit more is a huge understatement. Similar to what you mentioned regarding your local experiences, one of the editors of a paper out here pretty much prints a church bulletin and calls it news. They were even busted taking ad money from a local diocese and not disclosing that on any of the constant stream of positive news stories being printed daily about the diocese.

Along those lines, most local stories here are nothing more than copy/paste articles created from press releases drafted by the agency/organization being reported on. Multiple times the claims are easily proven to be false with even simple fact checking, but that is never done by the writer.

How to fix that is a good question and I’m not sure I have any answers.

I will say BlockClub has been very refreshing, and that model should be duplicated as much as possible.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 11:52 am
I blame Facebook and Google for raiding websites and convincing people they could get news for free.

All I can hope is that there’s a resurgence for paying for the news once people get sick of corruption on the part of corporations and state/national government. A man can dream.

Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:18 pm
There won’t be a solution until enough people decide they’re willing to pay for real news. Why pay, when you can get free news from people on Facebook who have already done the research and determined that ivermectin is effective against Covid, and that the election was stolen, etc.? Until then, hedge funds like Alden Global and Chatham Asset will continue to squeeze any remaining profits out of existing news outlets. The gaps will be filled by social media and by interest groups that pose as news outlets. The Rich Miller Model might actually be one solution: one- or two-person teams that focus on providing news for small geographic areas or specialize in news for niche interests.

Comment by Southern Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:34 pm
Re-elect Teddy Roosevelt of the Bull Moose Party. Undo everything Senator Durbin has done in his 40 years in Washington D.C. to allow consolidation of the media companies. I am often being told I am listening to one radio station or television when I am not. ABC, WB and Fox all the same locally. Break-up Facebook, Google and Amazon into ten different companies (Senator Warren has written on this). Revoke Rupert Murdoch’s citizenship and sell off Fox to fund our trillion dollar deficits. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine which was killed in about 1986 or 88. Break-up the NYC print media companies. Our freedom of speech and press have been stifled in the same of corporate profits. Same with the Cable TV companies.

Comment by Al Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:35 pm
I think there is a role for public libraries in local news. There are a lot of well-trained professional librarians in our local libraries. They are in the business of knowledge acquisition and distribution.

Imagine if they each had on their staff one person who was tasked with the equivalent of local journalism.

Tell the stories of their communities and help their citizens share their stories.

Publish on their websites.

It isn’t watchdog journalism. But is can be community story-telling. There’s a lot of value to that.

Comment by Dan Johnson Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:37 pm
I have often wondered if a model would work where a county referendum could create a modest stream of tax revenue, say a quarter of a percent sales tax, that could be dedicated to supporting local journalism. Then, every 2 years voters could choose the top 3 local news organizations that would split that revenue, perhaps choosing from a list of the top 10 local news media organizations based on subscriber/viewer size or a similar metric.

Journalism is often called the fourth branch of government for its importance to democracy. We publicly fund our executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Why not our “journalism branch”? It may take some tweaking to ensure that news organizations are not too reliant upon the funding, seen as controlled by the government, or otherwise called into question for conflict of interest, but I think a viable solution is in there.

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:44 pm
Keep in mind you need to print what sales too. I do not live in the eastern bloc but I do live where Fox News is too liberal. So if you only do poor journalism and lies, you are better off.

I assume the same is true with those reporters only reporting the happy, feel good stories. That must sale in your area.

Comment by Lurker Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 12:59 pm
Facebook as well as most of the rest of the abbreviated social “media” platforms are a cancer on Journalism…beware.

I’m thinking a time machine may be needed for any positive solution…as far as I can tell…bummer for sure.

Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 2:33 pm
===I would love to see Block Club start covering suburban Cook County, possibly by township.===

Amen to that. Block Club already has better coverage of “Chicagoland” regional stories than the Trib usually has.

I backed a local news startup in my suburb, kicked in a bit of seed money and subscribed, sight unseen, for the first year.

It is execrably bad. Lots of this nonsense FB-type coverage and “reporting the controversy.” Almost no substantive coverage of anything but schools building additions/doing remodeling. At the same school board meeting, they’ll discuss a bunch of crucially important stuff, and the start up reports out that “local parents angry about masks” (it’s one dude, he doesn’t have kids in the district) and “parents object to critical race theory” (same dude, still without children in the district), and covered basically nothing about major proposed changes to busing, plans for quarantined students (the most contentious part of the meeting, and one parents and students care a LOT about), curriculum updates, or anything else. Just, “they’re building some stuff” and “rehashed, manufactured Fox News controversies.”

I … honestly don’t think they realize that the “local parent” they keep pluralizing is a huge GOP donor with a long history of turning up to community meetings spouting Fox News talking points. Like, that’s his whole thing.

And a bunch of students also got up to speak at the meeting in FAVOR of wearing masks. But they didn’t get quoted. Just the one guy, because it let them write a lazy rehashed story.

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 2:53 pm
This may be snark, but I would also require all Springfield-based TV news stations to hire only reporters age 30 and above. With larger market experience preferable.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 3:08 pm
===What are your suggestions to improve local news?===

The idea of “all sides” to cover a story, there needs to be a commitment to be focused on truth, not commentary, and be willing to edit out false narratives woven into facts.

How dues that apply to “local news”?

Same way it applies “I know this guy who”

More often than not, that aspect isn’t truthful or helpful in reporting.

And… label “commentary” as such and not mix that into areas of the hard news.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 3:17 pm
Pay them a decent wage and stop with the sensationalism and crusades. The SunTimes seems to do best on spouting crime statistics which only seem to make them worse. The NYT has the 1619 project which is most likely going to boomerang and make it worse for those “victims” it is trying to help judging by the comments section of every story. It’s a mess.

Comment by DMC Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 3:35 pm
==What are your suggestions to improve local news?==

“The idea of “all sides” to cover a story…focused on truth, not commentary…”

I find more focus on telling both sides of a story in our local newspapers. In contrast the TV and radio news journalists seem to be telling us what their employers want us to think is true, and are not be taken seriously until we do our own research.

Comment by Enviro Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 4:18 pm
=== I find more focus on telling both sides of a story in our local newspapers. In contrast the TV and radio news journalists seem to be telling us what their employers want us to think is true, and are not be taken seriously until we do our own research.===

In a bigger picture that’s quite true, but to the extent the Tribune Editorial Board’s refusal to read its own exceptional reporters, ones willing to tell truth to facts, that’s where I sit.

You have a story on masking and saving lives. I don’t need to hear in a report about the facts to masking the “opinions” of the other side quoting debunked thoughts and trying to tell reporters these “other side of the story facts”

It’s easier in this digital media age to have one sit in front of a camera and microphone and call themselves reporters while giving straight commentary.

Local reporting focused on the truth to facts while not hedging on “both sides” to “complete the picture” will go a long way.

There’s no agreeing to “two sets of facts to one story” kind of silly.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 4:27 pm
Free news is never free…it’s society who ultimately pays.

Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 5:12 pm
“best way of improving local news may be for rich people to buy or create media outlets and run them as a public service.”

Where is the profit in that scheme? /s

Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 7:06 pm
I think there are plenty of tools available to do local journalism. I know plenty of neighborhood leaders who are good at doing some digging. I suppose my answer is more citizen journalism more so than utilizing trained journalist, particularly those who attended a journalism program at a university.

Comment by Levois J Tuesday, Aug 24, 21 @ 7:33 pm
Sorry to go off-script, but can anyone keep track of the NEW Multi-Members Boards, Committees JoBo has signed-off-on — in addition to all the Boards and Commissions the State already has?
So much for limiting the size of Government.

Comment by Joe Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 12:13 am
This may again be snark, but I would like a law that requires Channel 20 to stop reporting Champaign, Danville and Eastern Bloc news 70% of the newscast. And instead focus entirely on Springfield-area and Western Bloc (Jacksonville, Beardstown) news instead. With the exception made for U of I scores and reports.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 5:04 am