Digital publishers and public and cable access broadcasters are lobbying Albany lawmakers for a grant program comparable to tax credits previously provided to for-profit newspapers. The grants would promote job growth and support news outlets that are vital to democracy.
Nonprofit news outlets across New York are making a push for inclusion of a grant program in the state budget that would replicate tax credits enacted two years ago that primarily benefit for-profit newspaper publishers.
The proposed program would provide annual grants of $25,000 per full-time employee for staff members of digital news nonprofits, NPR and PBS stations, and public access television stations, all of which provide coverage of local and state affairs. The grants would cap annual benefits at $300,000 per outlet.
The point of the program is two-fold:
Provide for job growth and economic stability for the 90 outlets that would be eligible for grants.
Support the important role the press plays in a democratic society at a time when the news media is under siege from President Donald Trump and his allies.
Tax credits of $25,000 per employee for newspapers were approved by the state Legislature in 2024 and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Nonprofits were not eligible because they don’t pay taxes. Nonprofit publishers and broadcasters maintain that extending similar benefits to their operations is a matter of fairness.
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The publishers of 16 digital nonprofits noted in their recent endorsement of the proposed grant program:
“Most of us operate in communities where newspapers and television newsrooms have been downsizing, reducing their coverage in the process. We’re working to fill the gap.”
Bills have been introduced in the state Senate and Assembly, sponsored by Sen. Jamaal Bailey and Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz respectively, to establish the grant program. Legislative leaders and Hochul are being lobbied to include funding in the 2026-27 budget currently being negotiated. Supporters of nonprofit news are encouraged to contact their state legislators to encourage passage of the bills.
The push by nonprofits is being led by Rebuild Local News, a national research and policy organization, and endorsed by the New York News Publishers Association, the trade organization for daily and weekly newspapers in the state.
Diane Kennedy, president of the Publishers Association, wrote in her endorsement:
“We would urge the state to recognize … that the continued effective functioning of our democracy relies entirely on a well-informed and civically engaged population. Many well-done research studies have closely correlated the existence of a local newspaper to the likelihood of citizens to vote and to run for office. We believe an investment in local news will more than pay for itself.”
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The initiative has also been endorsed by a coalition of good government groups that include Reinvent Albany, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters.
In their letter of endorsement sent to state leaders, the coalition wrote:
“There are dozens of independent, non-profit news outlets spread around the state producing high quality journalism that is helping to keep the public informed following the collapse of the legacy news media.
When you approved the Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Program in April 2024, you excluded non-profit journalism from state subsidies. This is clearly not fair or consistent with the state’s stated logic for subsidizing commercial outlets because they are ‘vital to the health of our democracy.’ We urge you to remedy this omission. If commercial news outlets deserve state subsidies, so do non-profit outlets.”
In recent years, a handful of states have instituted grants, tax credits and other forms of financial assistance to news providers of both the for-profit and nonprofit variety. Illinois and New Mexico have the most substantial programs. Lawmakers in another dozen states are considering initiatives.
posted 3 hours ago – April 24, 2026