New York just committed $90 million to help save local journalism. Will it work?

New York has become the first state to commit significant resources toward keeping local journalism alive. It’s a good start that the legislation’s proponents hope could serve as a national model to save struggling local news outlets—if it can be implemented properly.

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was included in New York’s recently passed state budget, setting aside $90 million to subsidize local news for the next three years. Eligible outlets can apply to receive a refundable tax credit of up to $25,000 for the first $50,000 worth of employees’ salaries, with a per-company cap of $300,000. That’s a lot of money for a small newsroom, and could help stave off further layoffs and outlet closures.

The $30 million annual pool will be evenly divided between small and larger newsrooms, with the dividing line at 100 employees. Each group will have access to a total of $13 million in tax breaks, with an additional $4 million set aside as $5,000 subsidies for new hires. Publications owned by publicly traded companies aren’t allowed to apply, which would likely rule out places like the New York Times and New York Post. (In certain other cases, like Gannett’s multiple local papers, an outlet owned by a publicly traded company may be eligible because of a carve-out for publications whose print circulation has dipped by more than 20 percent in the past five years.)

The legislation had originally been proposed a few years ago by state lawmakers, but didn’t gain traction until earlier this year, when a group of three dozen local news companies formed the Empire State Local News Coalition to advocate its passage.

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