AB 2222 ready for signature
Most significant journalism bill nears the finish line
Most significant journalism bill nears the finish line
Sept. 3, 2026 By Laura Rearwin Ward, founder California Independent News Alliance | publisher, Ojai Valley News
News outlet owners, journalists and coalitions of organizations that have come together to support the nation’s most important journalism legislation to date were still in scramble mode this week, even as supermajorities in the California Legislature passed the Community NEWS Act, authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego).
This historic legislation, which would provide meaningful support for the free press and the public’s right to know at the local level, is on the verge of becoming law. California news outlets, journalists, and advocates for civil liberties and government transparency are holding their breath as they wait for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign Assembly Bill 2222 into law.
Estimates indicate the law would direct more than $40 million a year to California local news outlets, including print, broadcast and digital operations, regardless of whether they operate under a for-profit or nonprofit business model. The funding would be distributed through tax credits based on the number of journalists employed by each outlet. The structure is designed to serve smaller newsrooms first, as they would receive $20,000 per full-time journalist. That amount would decrease to $15,000 per journalist for newsrooms with greater than five, and with additional funding available for new hires.
We are one step away from making sustainable local news a reality. However, concern over the governor’s signature is well founded. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign the popular bill.
This moment brings the California Independent News Alliance full circle. I founded CINA in 2024 after we lost the battle over SB 1327, a similar bill introduced by former state Sen. Steve Glazer that would have been funded by Big Tech. When Big Tech, chain news and other powerful lobbies came out hard against it, Newsom refused to support the bill.
It was that summer that many independent news outlets fully realized our interests were not being represented by any trade association or organization. We were being picked off one by one as we watched the number of journalists decrease across our regions and the amount of corruption and misinformation in local communities and municipal governments increase. We joined hands in an alliance in hopes our voices would be heard and our newspapers saved.
On the surface, AB 2222 looks much like the Glazer bill. But this legislation is financed through a measure that would end corporate tax breaks for executive compensation above $1 million, aligning California’s tax rules with federal law.
The news industry is crumbling in California, and the 200 independent newspapers that remain are feeling the heat. This legislative season, CINA has been an important voice and a key connector among the huge coalition built throughout the state and nation to breathe life into our sagging industry. That coalition includes:
- Rebuild Local News
- Media Guild of the West
- SAG-AFTRA
- California Independent News Alliance
- California Broadcasters Association
- California News Publishers Association
- Pacific Media Workers Guild of The NewsGuild-CWA
- Latino Media Collaborative
- American Community Media
- California Black Media
- Institute for Nonprofit News
- Local Independent Online News Publishers
- Asian American Journalists Association of Los Angeles
- The Journalism Chairs of the Cal State University System
- News/Media Alliance
Rebuild Local News founder Steven Waldman underscored the bill’s importance in a Sept. 1 press release, saying, “If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a bill passed yesterday by supermajorities in the California legislature would be the most economically significant law supporting local news in the country, possibly in American history.”
Glazer worked shoulder to shoulder with media partners to pass the bill. He was a unifying force, staying focused on our shared goal of protecting Californians’ right to know.
The lesson learned in the news industry since 2024 is, as Glazer said that year, to “stop fighting to see who will be the last ship off the Death Star” and work together for the good of the people we serve.
I trust Newsom will do the right thing and follow the lead of the Legislature, whose members represent the people and communities they come from. He must sign this bill and build in permanent support for the only industry protected by the Constitution of the United States.
–Contact Laura Rearwin Ward publisher@ojaivalleynews.com.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Community NEWS Act Heads to California Senate Floor
Historically broad coalition comes together to support AB 2222, which would create refundable employment credits to support newsroom employment and local reporting across California
On August 13, the Community NEWS Act (AB 2222) advanced out of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on a 5–2 vote and is set for a vote by the full Senate. It has already passed the California Assembly with bipartisan supermajority support.
The ambitious bill was introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, jointly authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, sponsored by Rebuild Local News and has gathered a notably broad coalition of support. The bill would create refundable journalist employment credits that would help local news organizations sustain and grow essential coverage of schools, local government and other community affairs. The legislative session ends on August 31.
“Local journalism is essential infrastructure for a healthy democracy, but newsrooms across California are being asked to do more with fewer reporters and fewer resources,” said Assemblymember Ward. “The Community NEWS Act is about investing directly in the people who keep our communities informed—helping local outlets retain journalists, hire new reporters, and continue telling the stories that would otherwise go uncovered. At a time when independent journalism is under increasing economic and political pressure, California has an opportunity to strengthen trusted local news and ensure communities across our state continue to have access to the information they depend on.”
The Community NEWS Act provides financial support tied to the number of full-time and part-time local journalists. The bill provides:
- Job retention credits: $20,000 per journalist for up to five positions, plus $15,000 for each additional journalist.
- Part‑time credits: $7,500 for part‑time journalist roles.
- New hire credits: $15,000 for news organizations that expand journalist headcount, stackable with retention credits.
- Applies to commercial and nonprofit, print publications, digital‑only outlets, broadcast stations including public media, and sole proprietors.
The bill is based on Rebuild Local News’ model legislative language for local journalist employment credits.
AB 2222 is fully paid for and strengthens California’s budget because it is financed by a measure that would end corporate tax breaks for executive compensation above $1 million. Federal law does not allow this type of corporate tax break, and by aligning California’s policy with federal standards, the state can simplify its tax code and support community news jobs, with revenue left over for other state needs.
The bill has garnered a broad range of supporters including:
- Media Guild of the West
- SAG‑AFTRA
- Pacific Media Workers Guild of The NewsGuild‑CWA
- California News Publishers Association
- California Independent News Alliance
- California Broadcasters Association
- Latino Media Collaborative
- American Community Media
- Institute for Nonprofit News
- Local Independent Online News Publishers
- California Black Media
- Asian American Journalists Association of Los Angeles
- The LA Local
- Lookout Local
- Cityside Journalism Initiative
- The Sacramento Observer
- CalMatters
- The Journalism Chairs of the Cal State University System
- News/Media Alliance
“The United States has lost more than 80 percent of its local journalists since 2002, and California ranks among the 10 worst states for the number of journalists per 100,000 residents,” said Matt Pearce, Director of Policy for Rebuild Local News, who was previously a Los Angeles Times staff writer and president of Media Guild of the West. “The Community NEWS Act would deliver support right to the heart of the local news crisis by making it easier for community news providers to hire and employ more journalists.”
Legislative watch on Journalism
Legal Public Notice AB 2323 CINA Supports - Singed into law 8-2026
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor [D]
AB 2323 modernizes California’s public notice framework while
maintaining the legal protections associated with newspapers of general
circulation. The bill expands digital access to public notices so that members of
the public can locate important information through additional platforms while
preserving existi
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor [D]
AB 2323 modernizes California’s public notice framework while
maintaining the legal protections associated with newspapers of general
circulation. The bill expands digital access to public notices so that members of
the public can locate important information through additional platforms while
preserving existing requirements for publication in qualifying newspapers.
By allowing notices to be available through both traditional and digital formats,
the bill seeks to improve accessibility to legally required information while
maintaining the established role of newspapers of general circulation within the
public notice system
CINA supported AB 2323 and worked with CA Black Media on this solid legislation to protect public notice for newspapers and protects public transparency.
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
Community Journalism Fund - Tax credits for Journalists
On August 13, the Community NEWS Act (AB 2222) advanced out of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on a 5–2 vote The ambitious bill was introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, jointly authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, sponsored by Rebuild Local News and has
Community Journalism Fund - Tax credits for Journalists
On August 13, the Community NEWS Act (AB 2222) advanced out of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on a 5–2 vote The ambitious bill was introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, jointly authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, sponsored by Rebuild Local News and has gathered a notably broad coalition of support. The bill would create refundable journalist employment credits that would help local news organizations sustain and grow essential coverage of schools, local government and other community affairs. The legislative session ends on August 31.
“Local journalism is essential infrastructure for a healthy democracy, but newsrooms across California are being asked to do more with fewer reporters and fewer resources,” said Assemblymember Ward. “The Community NEWS Act is about investing directly in the people who keep our communities informed—helping local outlets retain journalists, hire new reporters, and continue telling the stories that would otherwise go uncovered. At a time when independent journalism is under increasing economic and political pressure, California has an opportunity to strengthen trusted local news and ensure communities across our state continue to have access to the information they depend on.”
GoBiz/Google "deal" - Civic Media Program
AB 2222 - Support -Chris Ward Support set for a vote by the full Senate
GoBiz/Google "deal" - Civic Media Program
SB 155 - Google settlement - GoBiz/Asm Buffy Wicks/ Approved Oct. 11, 2025 Gov. Newsom:
The California Civic Media Program is a $20 million public-private partnership with equal initial funding from the State of California and Google to support the work of California’s journalists and strengthen community engagement statewide.
All funding
SB 155 - Google settlement - GoBiz/Asm Buffy Wicks/ Approved Oct. 11, 2025 Gov. Newsom:
The California Civic Media Program is a $20 million public-private partnership with equal initial funding from the State of California and Google to support the work of California’s journalists and strengthen community engagement statewide.
All funding will be allocated at the direction of GO-Biz per Government Code § 12100.160 – 12100.162 (effective October 2025) and disbursed through a third-party administrator in the fall of 2026. GO-Biz has appointed and will consult an Advisory Board comprised of news leaders on how best to distribute the program’s funds.
CINA was not given a position on the board. See comments below
Support letter from CINA AB 2222 Community Journalism Bill
June 19, 2026 Public Comment
CINA is advocating for the passage of AB 2222 (Ward) on behalf of 106 California Independent Alliance news outlet members, and support the other 100 statewide, when we urgently ask for your vote on this vital journalism legislation — we need some help out here.
I am the publisher of a small newspaper - Ojai Valley News | Ventura County Sun. When owners and reporters live and work in the communities they serve, the interests of those communities come first. Beyond investment or profit motive, we have skin in the game.
We witness and report first hand on the state’s breaking stories, while our team members make the deepest sacrifices for local news outlets to stay afloat in order that they may inform their communities because they are passionately driven to provide the information that both connects and protects people, and provides California’s historical record.
The California Independent News Alliance (CINA), a 501c3 support the work of California’s independently owned and operated newspapers and digital news outlets. Without our work democracy does not work. The public has the right to a free press and the right to know, but those rights are diminishing together as news outlets close, and face closing monthly. The industry business model for success has been gutted by big tech, hedge funds and private equity firms.
News outlets are closing and on the verge of closing right now. AB 2222 will make the difference in many communities immediately upon implementation.
Freedom is not free — Please don’t delay to help California’s independent news outlets to report for the people. Vote yes on AB 2222 for Local News..
Contact Us
Have a question or want to get in touch? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at hello@cina.news
AB 2222 Assemblymember Chris Ward
REBUILD LOCAL NEWS - Explainer: Local News Initiative
Introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, (D) San Diego, on Feb. 19, 2026
Would create refundable payroll tax credits for California local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ, with enhanced benefits for the smallest community newsrooms and outlets creating new journalist jobs.
We designed this policy so that local print, digital, and broadcast outlets alike benefit regardless of whether they are for-profit businesses, nonprofits or sole proprietorships. Similar versions of this approach have had a strong political track record in recent years, winning approval from lawmakers in Illinois, New York and New Mexico with broad support from local news stakeholders. AB 2222 creates two types of refundable tax credits for employing journalists. (“Refundable” means that credits in excess of an organization’s tax liability are paid in cash, like a grant.)
The first credit, a job retention credit, is worth $20,000 per journalist for up to five positions, plus $15,000 per every additional journalist. The second credit, a $15,000 “new hire” credit for news organizations that expand journalist headcount, can be stacked on top of the retention credits. Use this calculator to estimate the dollar benefit to your news organization from AB 2222.
For example: A nonprofit community news website with three full-time news staffers covering the Central Valley would be eligible for $60,000 a year under this program. If the publication hired one more reporter – or converted a freelancer or part-time staffer into a full-time editorial employee – the publication would earn $95,000 in benefits. The program includes objective safeguards, outlined in the eligibility section below, to prevent abuse by partisan "pink slime" operations and other bad actors, while not giving the government any discretion over editorial content. Inclusive Benefits We worked with legislative staff to create a structure designed to allow commercial, 501(c)3 and sole proprietor news organizations to benefit equally from the program.
A refundable credit against “net tax” reduces what is owed after all other deductions and exemptions are applied. If the net tax goes to zero, a news organization can get the rest as a check. For qualified sole proprietors with pass-through income rather than wages, credits can be applied against personal income tax. For non-profits to receive a credit, they will file paperwork with the Franchise Tax Board (FTB). Non-profits are already required to file annual information returns. The FTB may create a new form specific to these credits, similar to the process for the California Motion Picture and Television Production Credit. Transparent & Objective Eligibility The program provides objective qualifications for a local news organization to be eligible for credits.
Outlets can apply as any one of the following types:
● Digital News Outlet: Must have a primary mission of publishing news about California or a local community, publish at least monthly, and prove that at least 33% of its audience is located within the state. (Print or broadcast outlets with digital presences can also qualify.)
● Broadcast Station: Must have an FCC license and a broadcasting area that is at least 33% located within California.
● Print Publication: Must have a USPS periodicals mailing privilege, publish at least monthly, and either be based in-state or prove 33% of its distribution is within California. Additional standards apply to all organizations, regardless of media type:
● Established Presence: The outlet must be either organized in California or legally registered to do business in the state for at least 12 months before the tax year begins.
● Ownership Disclosure: The outlet must publicly list all beneficial owners, or its board of directors if it is a nonprofit, on its website or in its publication.
● Corrections Policy: The outlet must maintain and publicly display an editorial policy for error correction and provide an accessible way for the public to report complaints.
● Insurance: The outlet must carry active media liability insurance throughout the tax year.
● Independence from Political Influence: The organization cannot be controlled by a Political Action Committee (PAC) or a 501(c)(4). It cannot receive more than 15% of its gross revenue from these types of political organizations.
○ Standard broadcast political advertising revenue in the FCC regulated windows do not count towards this 15 percent limit. Eligible Employees (Qualifying Journalists) To claim the credit, the journalists employed must meet these standards:
● Full-time position: Must work at least 30 hours/week and earn at least $35,000 annually.
● Residency: Must live within 50 miles of the news organization's coverage area.
● Job Duties: Must involve gathering, preparing, directing the recording of, producing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, presenting, or publishing state or local community news for dissemination to the local community, including roles such as reporter, correspondent, photographer, videographer, editor, and digital producer.
Questions, comments, feedback? Contact mattpearce@rebuildlocalnews.org and geneperry@rebuildlocalnews.org
TO: The California Civic Media Program Advisory Board and the Governor’s Office of Business and Econ
We are a group of 107 California owned and operated independent newspapers and news outlets.
Below (on page two) is our specific of our recommended/requested guidelines for the Google funding your office has been charged with distributing.
This nationwide map can be a helpful tool to predict number of journalists, by Muck Rack.
https://muckrack.com/research/local-journalist-index
California ranks 41st out of 50 states for the number of reporters with 6.1 per 100,000.
According to the data, California’s population of 39.43 million has approximately 2,133 journalists.
According to CINA’s own research, cross referenced with the Northwestern University research, we estimate there to be 225 independent newspapers owned and operated in California, 75 digital news outlets and 175 out-of-state chain newspapers.
We assert that rewarding outlets for spending resources on professional journalists and for preserving a physical, unchangeable historical record — printed newspapers — must be prioritized to be revived first.
When the locally owned smaller, community publications are taken care of first, the unique character, culture and diversity of our communities are best preserved … by the reporters and companies who live there.
Below is our request for distribution of $20 million in funds to support California’s journalism in the best, most powerful and meaningful way.
Proposed CA Civic Media Program guidelines and d istribution Schedule
By California Independent News Alliance (CINA)
Qualifying Newsrooms meet all of the following:
—it is a professional news publication that primarily serves California since Jan. 2023
— is primarily a news publication - print and or digital
—it has at least one full time reporter (journalist), or full time equivalent
—has to disclose their ownership type
—has media liability insurance
—publishes in print a minimum of 24 times a year or digitally 52 times a year
—is not funded by 501c4 or a political action committee
—has $100,000 revenue minimum
Definition of Journalist:
A California resident paid professional journalist with a byline (minimum of 10 per year), who can be described as one or more of the following: writes or gathers the news, edits the news, publishes the news, is a columnist, or photojournalist. (Journalist does not include: graphic artist, bookkeeper, sales person, proofreader, layout person, social media specialist, technology support or broadcast journalist.)
Reimbursement preferences:
Reimbursement preference is based on work hours, employment status, and number of journalists employed.
To ensure that funding is available to the widest number of publications, payments for journalists begin with the first five journalism staff, then six through 10 and so on as funding lasts.
Definition of journalist employment
Full time employee or 1099 Independent Contract labor = 32 hours per week or greater
Full time equivalent employee = two or more employees or contract labor, who work at least 40 hours per week combined..
Independent Contractors (Stringer) = 1099 Contract workers, paid equal to or greater than $10K annually by the qualifying newsroom.
NOTE: The schedule for funding each year is to fully fund item “1.” then fully fund item “2. a.”, then item “2. b.” and so forth until all funding is exhausted.
- 15% for printing - $3,000,000 - $3,500,000
First priority is to provide a $8,000 flat annual reimbursement per newspaper publication, who print their product at least every two-weeks, with a verified print bill. (The estimated printed publications number is under 400.)
- 85% for reporters - $16,500,000 +
Provide an annual reimbursement to print and digital news publishers of $2K - $12K per reporter, including full and part time employees and independent contractors.
Funds to be allocated as follows by proof of employment through tax filings.
- $20,000 each journalist for the first five full time/full time equivalent employee
- $6,000 each journalist for the six through 10 full time/full time equivalent employees
- $2,000 for each of the first five Independent Contractors
- $5,000 for 11th- 15th Full time/full time equivalent employees
- $5,000 for 16th- 20th Full time/full time equivalent employees
3. Cap payments to any one outlet at $250,000
Respectfully submitted by the board of directors,
California Independent News Alliance:
Laura Rearwin Ward, Ojai Valley News
Reggie Ellis, The Sun Gazette
Gina Wilcox, Embarcadero Media
Greg Little, Mariposa Gazette
Manuel Munoz, Vida Newspaper
David Briggs, Point Reyes Light
Saskia Kennedy, Fullerton Observer
Email: hello@cina.news
Join CINA and Make a Difference
Welcome to California Independent News Alliance (CINA)
We are a volunteer organization dedicated to improving our community through service projects and outreach programs. Our members come from all walks of life and are united in their desire to make a positive impact in the world. Whether you're interested in volunteering your time or making a donation, there are many ways to get involved with California Independent News Alliance (CINA).
