Enacted NYS 2024-25 budget makes critical investment in local journalism

Speaker Carl Heastie and Assembly member Carrie Woerner today announced the enacted state fiscal year (SFY) 2024-25 budget provides a much-needed investment in local journalism by providing $30 million in tax credits each year, over three years, to support the salaries of local journalists.

“Local journalism plays an essential role in our communities,” Heastie said. “Not only does it provide critical coverage of local elections, but it also joins communities together through a shared knowledge of high school sports teams, new businesses coming to the area, and issues impacting readers' everyday lives. This funding is the necessary first step in ensuring local journalism is protected and supported for many years to come.”

“I’m honored this funding provision made it into this year’s budget,” Woerner said. “It’s reported that roughly 2.5 newspapers closed each week of 2023, and this number is expected to rise year after year. By providing journalists the funding they need to continue their critical work in keeping us all informed about our local communities, we’re connecting neighborhoods and filling the information void.”

This bill will allow publishers to use the $30 million in tax credits each year over the next three years to cover half of the salaries of journalists up to $50,000 each year. The credit can apply to current staff, but also provides an additional $5,000 to companies for each new employee hired to support local papers in expanding their newsroom.