Journalists may see more post-grad opportunities in Connecticut in the coming years as a new bill before the state legislature seeks to establish 12 journalism fellowships.
The bill is one of five proposed this year aimed at supporting local journalism. Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, has sponsored all of the bills as part of an effort to bring the decline of local news in Connecticut to the attention of the state legislature.
House Bill 6076, An Act Funding Journalism Fellowships for Graduates of Public Institutions of Higher Education, seeks to bolster local news outlets by offering recent college graduates fellowship opportunities in the state. Farrar said in an interview that this bill, and several of the others, were inspired by similar legislation in New York and Illinois.
Farrar said the bill aims to make the connection between recent graduates from public institutions who have an interest in journalism and local newsrooms who need reporters but may not be able to afford to hire one.
Local journalism in Connecticut has been in a prolonged period of financial challenge that has resulted in the closure of some local papers, the consolidation of others, and the shuttering of flagship newsrooms.
Bruce Putterman, publisher and CEO of The Connecticut Mirror, a nonprofit online news outlet, said the fellowship bill is part of a larger effort to get people thinking about how the state can help local journalism.
“The bill is pretty broadly stated right now,” he said in an interview. “It’s essentially a placeholder right now. It’s testing a concept, and if there’s interest, we can … get a little bit more specific.”
It also lacks a price tag.
Farrar said the bill’s language is unspecific because it hasn’t yet made it out of the committee it was proposed in.
“We don’t know what the cost would be,” she said. “Likely if this bill gets voted out of the Higher Education Employment Advancement Committee, there would be a fiscal note associated with it and then it would proceed to the Appropriations Committee for consideration.”
A public hearing on the bill is set for 11 a.m. Friday, March 7.
The fellowship bill works in tandem with the other four bills to bring attention to the reduction in local journalism seen statewide and nationally, and to start the discussion on how to preserve local news, Putterman said. A coalition of local news publications, legislators and citizen groups working on the measures hope to use smaller, less controversial bills to garner support for the more ambitious ones.
Senate Bill 1230, An Act Concerning the Purchase of Print and Digital Advertising by the State, is one of the more controversial bills that again has been proposed this session. The bill would require that at least 50% of state advertising budgets be spent with news organizations based in Connecticut.
The bill stalled in the Senate for the last two years because of concerns over journalistic integrity, an advertiser’s choice in ad placement and the exclusion of media chains such as Hearst Media, which is not based in the state, but owns many local newsrooms in Connecticut.
“So after it didn’t get called last year for a second year in a row, a number of us got together and said, ‘OK, this doesn’t seem to be working. What else can we do?’” Putterman said.
Along with the fellowships idea, the following bills are what the coalition decided on.
- House Bill 5978 proposes tax credits for local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ, with a cap of $150,000 for each news organization.
- House Bill 6038 would establish a Local Journalism Appreciation Day on the first Wednesday of May each year.
- House Bill 6418 would require news organizations to give their employees and communities 120 days’ notice before they can sell their newsroom to a company that is based out of state.
“I hope that the bills we put forward this year provide different solutions,” Farrar said. “If folks have some concerns about one approach, hopefully they can be supportive of another.”
Putterman said the debate isn’t over whether local journalism is important, but rather the best way to support it. All five bills aim to get legislators talking about how they can support newsrooms in Connecticut.
“We’re looking for support for the impact that journalism has. We’re looking for support for stronger communities, more informed residents, less corruption, greater government accountability – all of which are achieved through journalism,” Putterman said.
Olivia Grant is a journalism student at the University of Connecticut. This story is republished via CT Community News, a service of the Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative, an organization sponsored by journalism departments at college and university campuses across the state.