Editorial: Wind Newspaper sees new legislation AB 886 as a first step and urges to ensure funds are truly down to save local journalism outlets instead of benefiting middleman agencies

Since the COVID pandemic began in early 2020, the news media outlets, in particular the printed media and smaller newspapers focusing on local journalism, are fading in a faster pace due to the rising cost of printing, staffing and losing more of their advertising revenues. It is good to see more local, state and federal lawmakers trying to save local journalism through legislation. AB 886 introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) is one of those legislations.

How the private and public funds can be actually down to all local journalism outlets under AB 886 is still unknown. It is the concern of many local news media outlets, including Wind Newspaper, that the news funds targeted to save local journalism might end up to benefit middleman consulting agencies.

Wicks, who was elected to the Assembly in 2018, represents a district comprising Oakland, Richmond and Berkeley. Wicks was appointed as the Chair of the Appropriations Committee in late 2023.

Wicks announced on August 21 the introduction of AB 886 to secure agreement with state and major tech companies to establish a fund with a goal of supporting the work of California journalists.

AB 886 would create a first-in-the-nation partnership with the State, news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy and unveil a pair of multi-year initiatives to provide ongoing financial support to newsrooms across California and launch a National AI Accelerator, according to Wicks.

Wicks said the new partnerships in AB 886 would provide nearly $250 million in public and private funding over the next five years, with the majority of funding going to newsrooms.

The goal of AB 886 is to front-load $100 million in the first year to kick-start the efforts. The total investment could increase over the next several years if additional funding from private or state sources becomes available.

As news outlets across the country are downsizing and closing at alarming rates, Wicks said she authored AB 886 to help ensure the sustainability of local journalism.

Wicks quoted a Northwestern University study published last year that an average of two and a half newspapers in the United States close every week, and two-thirds of newspaper journalist positions have been lost since 2005. In California, more than 100 newspapers closed in the last decade alone.

The initiatives which are included in AB 886 will help ensure the sustainability of existing and new online publications – with an emphasis on small, local outlets and community-facing journalism, according to Wicks.

“This partnership represents a cross-sector commitment to supporting a free and vibrant press, empowering local news outlets up and down the state to continue in their essential work. This is just the beginning. I remain committed to finding even more ways to support journalism in our state for years to come,” Wicks wrote in the announcement.

The proposed News Transformation Fund will be administered by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and will include contributions from technology platforms and the State of California. Wicks stated that the funding was designed to support California-based state and local news organizations, particularly those serving California local news deserts, underserved and underrepresented communities, and outlets that prioritize California coverage.

As the information circulated among the news publishers, a governing board would be formed at the UC Berkeley Journalism School to oversee the program implemented under AB 886. The 7-member governing board is proposed to include two representatives of California News Publishers Association, one representative of Local Independent Online News (LION), one representative of MediaGuild of the West, and one representative of each of the following three media consulting agencies California Black Media, Ethnic Media Services, and Latino Media Collaborative.

Wind Newspaper opposes three appointments from the consulting agencies and requests three positions to be replaced by independent representatives who are free from conflicts of interests in the news industry like California Common Clause which has an excellent Media and Democracy Program to advocate for local journalism.

We need representatives who sit on the oversight body to truly understand our work and advocate for the news media outlets instead of themselves.

The California Ethnic Media Outlet Grants program which is still ongoing represents an example of alleged lack of oversight to allocate funds to the middle agencies instead of news media outlets.

In the past two years, California Black Media, San Francisco Study Center/Ethnic Media Services, and Latino Media Collaborative were among the top grantees to receive more than $1 million state fund each.

The ethnic media grant program was created by legislation which was introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) in 2021 for the purpose of supporting ethnic media outlets to report the increased anti-Asian hate and violent incidents and educate the Asian community with information for prevention.

The ethnic media grant program, which is administered by the California State Library, has awarded $14 million in two years to a total of 112 applicants, $5,918,055 to 50 applicants in 2022-2023 and $8,128,673 to 62 applicants in 2023-2024.

The vast majority of the grantees was awarded repeatedly for two years including the same four middleman agencies, California Black Media, San Francisco Study Center/Ethnic Media Services, and Latino Media Collaborative, which are rather advocacy, public relations and consulting agencies than media outlets.

The same four agencies awarded with significant grants in the ethnic media fund program were Latino Media Collaborative with a total of $1,224,175 state fund in two years, San Francisco Study Center/Ethnic Media Services $1,216,917 in two years, California Black Media $985,500, and Everyday Impact Consulting (Filipino Ethnic Media Collaborative) $598,395. The total amount for the above four agencies awarded were over $4 million for two years, approximately 1/3 of the entire grant dollars.

However, Wind Newspaper submitted its application for the ethnic media grant program for the fiscal year of 2023-2024 and was denied by the California State Library without providing any explanations. Wind Newspaper only received a very brief email saying the application was denied.

Wind Newspaper did not submit an application for 2022-2023 because of its requirement of minimum two years in business.

Wind Newspaper was launched on September 1, 2020 during the peak of the pandemic as the only locally-owned news publication in Chinese language serving in San Francisco. It has provided a free English and Chinese bilingual weekly newspaper in print and online focusing on local news for almost four years. It also has been selected by the City and County of San Francisco as the city's only official outreach advertising periodical for the Chinese community citywide for three years in a row.

Wind Newspaper has covered a large number of the untold anti-Asian hate and violent incidents since the launch in 2020.

In the editorial published on November 26, 2023, Wind Newspaper demanded investigations and audits by the California State to look into the awarding process for the ethnic media grants program by the California State Library.

Assemblymember Ting who is the author of the program responded to Wind Newspaper's inquiry that the goal of his legislation to establish the ethnic media grants program was to support news media outlets, not consulting firms.