Legislative watch on Journalism

We, the board members of the California Independent News Alliance (CINA), a group of 73 California-owned and operated community newsrooms. Our members stand for the interests of the 200-plus remaining independent news outlets in California. We strongly support AB 611, to slow the consolidation of local newspapers from corporate takeovers. Lack of competition and diversity of ownership threatens journalistic integrity and community access to reliable news.

AB 611 is backed by labor groups, California Common Cause, Rebuild Local News, and the California Independent News Alliance.  It requires a waiting period before a legacy local news outlet can sell to a huge company, giving labor and communities a chance to make an offer to keep the publication locally owned and independent. This legislation does not apply to broadcasters or any news outlet that is being sold to an independent operator.

AB 611 gives time for employees and communities to put an offer together, slows the absorption of California’s local news outlets into chain-media companies, and encourages local owners to reach out in their own communities and to other independent operators before handing the keys to a chain-news company. 

 How much can you afford to pay CNPA for each public notice?

Preserving public notice is at the heart (and bottom line) of adjudicated newspapers; so why is California Independent News Alliance (CINA) opposed to AB 1444? Splainer:

It is ironic a longstanding statewide organization charged with protecting many small businesses is now advocating to harm those businesses — for its own financial gain – in its support of legislation regulating public notices.

Such is the case with the California News Publishers Association which is advocating for AB 1444, sponsored by Assembly Member Heath Flora.

This flawed legislation does just the opposite of what public notices are all about — and that is making sure the public is informed.

The main issue with the legislation is in Section C, which would require all newspapers to upload every notice to the CNPA website. It would allow CNPA to charge whatever it chooses to newspapers — the very businesses they should be financially protecting.

The California Independent News Alliance (CINA) is in deep opposition to this bill because it does harm to small, independent newspapers who have historically struggled financially.

The proposed bill actually threatens public notices for a simple reason — publishers will be forced to increase prices to cover CNPA’s insistence on financial gain for a public service.

It is clear CNPA is attempting to make money on the backs of small newspapers, something that is ironic considering it should be trying to support ALL newspapers in the State of California. That’s not even mentioning they could sell the data they collect from the legal notifications.

The icing on the cake came in a June 2 letter CNPA sent to its members, basically saying CINA, without mentioning us by name, and California Black Media members misunderstand the bill. CINA and California Black Media members are well versed in this field and it is the very reason the group has been formed. Keeping local journalism alive is the laser-focus of CINA and the members don’t appreciate the gaslighting effort of CNPA.

Also ironic is the fact legal notices have been working just fine under the current system. Most local publishers will tell you there are “loyal” legal notice readers and they appreciate knowing when and how to find that information.

In the vast majority of cases, the smaller newspapers are already putting legal notices online via their own websites and those are offered free as a service to the public. That is the very essence of legal notice requirements in California. CINA already supports local news outlets putting legal notices on their own websites — where they belong.

To be clear, CINA supports Sections A and B of the bill which require digital posting of public notices on local news websites. But it adamantly opposes Section C, which would require local news organizations to post the notices on a statewide website maintained by CNPA for its profit.

The overall stance of CINA is for all members to contact their legislators and urge them to vote NO on AB 1444 (without amendment).

To quote an old saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Another swipe at the free press: Is corporate capture progressive?

(Read on Editor & Publisher July 7, 2025)

Newspapers are essential assets of and for the people and it has become clear what happens when Big Corporate interests take them over — reporting coverage is lost. The goals of Big Media are different from the goals of local independent owners. The people need their own news outlets with healthy, independent, diverse ownership as the key to a free press. Increasingly, most news ownership is in the hands of very few.

In California, the Keep News Independent Act (Assembly Bill 611) was authored this year to slow the relentless consolidation of local independent news outlets by Big Media by requiring that employees and the community get notice before a news publication is sold to vulture capitalists.

The “crazy” idea behind the bill is the protection of the people’s right to know, so of course, it’s been a hard sell with legislators beholden to Big Business. Employees and community members need a window of opportunity in front of big outside corporate interests — a chance to save their local newspapers.

A consortium of the free-independent-press faithful supports the bill. That includes the California Independent News Alliance (CINA), California Common Cause, Rebuild Local News, and labor groups.

Opposing the bill is the big trade organization, the California News Publishers Association.

Press freedom lost another round in June when AB611 was postponed in the state Senate. Had the bill not been pushed to next year, it would have died a sudden death in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the bill’s author, Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-Fremont).

It was a tough break as Californians are still stinging from the loss of an independent community newspaper earlier this year when Sonoma County’s Press Democrat was sold to Alden Global Capital, a multinational hedge fund. Arguably, Alden is a key player in decimating local news reporting nationwide by buying up local newspapers and stripping them for parts.

With these consolidations replicated across the country, the core interest of the newspaper flips from responsibility as a watchdog for its community to responsibility for profits for its shareholders.

The reason du jour by legislators not to protect local media ownership from takeovers and preserve our free press sounded like a new brand of virtue signaling: We don’t want to discriminate against hedge funds and private-equity companies for newspaper transactions. 

So, the drumbeat against a free and healthy press — one that meaningfully provides professional local news coverage — continues. The deck is stacked.

Despite the AB611 delay, the public is gaining the clarity to see their representatives at every level voting with their hands tied behind their backs, wrapped up in the money and influence that got them elected. We see our representatives taking part in power consolidation, disregarding the best interests of constituents, behaving as servants to their campaign money masters.

It is hard to watch our elected officials turn their backs on their constituents with hollow-sounding explanations for why they are failing to honestly and fearlessly to represent a better life for constituents.

The issue is not just about independent news. Time may be running out for the public who face a crisis for control — over their government, homeownership, the very existence of independent businesses, including media ownership — along with our rights to free speech, privacy and due process … the American Way.

The old paradigm of red versus blue has become but a distraction. The struggle now is for the people themselves — our independence, prosperity and freedoms: Independents vs. Mega Corporations — Smalls vs. Bigs.

With corporate capture, we face more closed and powerful government agencies with elected officials often working hand in glove with Big Oil, Big Ag, Big Tech, Big Health, Big Pharma, Big Media, Super PACs, and the Military Industrial Complex. We turn to our representatives for help, yet watch helplessly as power and wealth consolidation continues and our standard of health, freedom and living declines.

In the big picture, the setback in California is just another example of the incremental loss in the grand scheme of the decommissioning of the public’s right to a free press. But here, as a publisher on the front lines of saving local independent news, every battle counts.

The people need a chance.

Independents unite:

Support free speech and the independent press. Support and partner with locally owned

independent outlets near you. Seek champions for publications who truly report for the people, and stand up for the press freedom that Americans deserve.

— Laura Rearwin Ward is founder of the California Independent News Alliance, a group of locally owned and operated independent news outlets, and publisher of the Ojai Valley News.