With the green light from the state Board to pursue national concurrence of the Local News position—as well as a number of other advocacy and education efforts—the state Local News Committee is moving forward and welcomes your participation! Learn more about the work the Committee has been doing.

The Committee meets the third Tuesday of each month, via Zoom, from 1:30-3:00PM. The next meeting is on Tuesday, October 17. Contact Dee Anne Finken with questions or for more information.

On October 9, the State Board approved a motion for the LWVWA to seek national concurrence of the Local News position, which will mean a lot of work in the coming weeks.

Concurrence is the act of agreeing with a position, which then allows for League membership to take action on that position. In Washington, our state League conducted an extensive study on local news and its significance to democracy. We then reached consensus on a position based on that study.  Because we conducted the study and then, as a state, reached consensus on the position, we can take action. For other states and the national League to be able to take action on a position, they can conduct their own studies and reach consensus, or concur with our work.  The latter, of course, is a great deal less work.

The value of another state concurring with our work is that that state could also take action.  With national concurrence, all other tate and local leagues may rely on the positions to develop support for actions taken at those levels. For local news, that is valuable because federal legislation has been proposed to deal with the decline and passage of federal laws could be helpful nationwide.  Other states have also proposed legislation and local jurisdictions may do the same.  Concurrence nationally would allow for advocacy that could result in benefits uniformly across the country at all levels.

Representatives from other state Leagues that have pursued national concurrence have advised LWVWA leadership that a state is more likely to secure national concurrence if there is broad support from individual state Leagues as well. Thus, one key effort will be creating support for our position among the other 49 state Leagues across the country. Already, the Colorado state League has signaled interest in supporting the LWVWA position and the Virginia state League has requested a presentation by the LWVWA League on our position.

Meanwhile, the Local News Committee is also tracking legislation and programs in other states that support local news. These range from proposals for refundable payroll tax credits for newspapers that hire additional staff, all the way to university fellowship programs that will add journalists to newsrooms in underserved communities. 

The Committee is also kicking off a pilot program to provide News Media Literacy training for social studies instructors in Spokane Public Schools. Committee member Joanne Lisosky (LWV Pierce/Tacoma) is taking the lead. Lisosky taught for more than 20 years at Pacific Lutheran University, where she developed a news media literacy curriculum. First vice president Beth Pellicciotti noted that this effort aligns with goals identified in both Civics Education and the Local News positions.  

In early October, the Yakima Herald-Republic published an op-ed submitted by League president Lee Murdock and state director Dee Anne Finken discussing the philanthropic efforts to support the Yakima Free Press Campaign, which includes the goal of expanding digital access to local news to low-income residents. 

“The local news crisis is daunting,” said Sharon Miracle, executive director of the Yakima Valley Community Foundation, which organized and leads the Free Press campaign.  “But we are doing our utmost to ensure we are well positioned to maintain local journalism.” 

In Clark County, the League will join with the Fort Vancouver Regional Library to host a community conversation about the local news crisis and its impact. Titled “Does Local News Even Matter,” the November 16 event will feature Vancouver mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, who is a League member; a dean from the University of Oregon’s Agora Journalism Center; a faculty member from Washington State University Vancouver’s Edward R. Murrow College; and journalists from four local news outlets.  

To learn more about the local news crisis and its impacts on democracy, you can read the LWVWA's study, "The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy," available as a free PDF or for purchase as an e-book ($1.99) or paperback book ($9.52) on Amazon.