Support local journalism (LTE)

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

The editorial cartoons frequently appearing in the Gettysburg Times are really awful. But, isn’t that the whole point of editorial cartoons? They are designed to elicit outrage in some (like us), and mocking laughter in others.

Here is something, though, that we think all sides can agree on: Adams County is lucky to have a daily newspaper that provides us with well-sourced and well-written journalism that keeps us abreast of the happenings in local school boards and government, high school sports, and goings-on around the County. All over the country, local newspapers have been driven out of business, in large part because of the predatory business practices of the big social media companies, Facebook, Google, Apple, that have scooped up most of the ad revenue that used to go to newspapers, and that use the work of local journalists in their own news feed without compensating the originators of the work.

The US Congress has tried to address this problem with the bi-partisan Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. This bill would allow waivers of antitrust laws so that newspapers could negotiate revenue sharing arrangements with the Big Tech companies.

Some Democrats and some Republicans oppose these antitrust waivers (albeit for different reasons), so this bill is stalled.

The California legislature has recently adopted a different approach. The California Journalism Protection Act would require the Big Tech Companies, which are headquartered in California, to pay newspaper publishers a “journalism usage fee” for displaying the newspaper’s content. This, of course, would apply only to California newspapers. But it does point the way to how the Congressional bill can be fixed, or how other states, like Pennsylvania, can adopt measures that save local newspapers like the Gettysburg Times.

We think that this is one issue on which all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, should be able to agree. The Gettysburg Times often irritates us, but it provides a vital local service.

Jeff Colvin and Leon Reed
DFA co-chairs, Gettysburg