Newspapers, struggling for survival, are finding it difficult to get financial aid to curb layoffs and payroll cuts, observes Grumpy Editor.
The Wall Street Journal, citing data from the Alliance for Audited Media, reports, “Papers representing more than 80 percent of U.S. circulation are disqualified from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program because of the way their companies are structured.”
The Journal adds, “The issue has prompted a bipartisan push in Congress to either amend PPP rules to make an exception for local news, or get news organizations other forms of aid in the next stimulus bill.”
The Paycheck Protection Program features loans designed to provide direct incentives for small businesses to keep workers on payrolls. The Small Business Administration will forgive loans if all employees are kept on payrolls for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities.
However, some news outlets are ineligible for PPP loans because parent companies own large businesses unrelated to news.
University of North Carolina research finds the U.S. has lost 2,100 newspapers in the past six years, leaving 1,800 communities wirthout a news source.
MOST FEEL TRUMP SLOW IN CORONAVIRUS ACTION. Pew Research Center finds nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) say President Donald Trump was too slow to take major steps to address the threat to the U.S. when coronavirus cases were first reported in other countries.
FOX BUSINESS VIEWERS UP. Fox Business Network total viewers jumped 80 percent in April, attracted by news about the economy and stock market in uncertain times.
CLOSED NEWSPAPER REVIVED. The Los Angeles Times-owned Glendale (Calif.) News-Press which closed last month, will be revived by the publisher of the nearby La Canada Outlook. Established in 1905, lack of advertising forced the News-Press to stop the presses.
PBS'S JIM LEHRER HONORED. PBS NewsHour plans the Jim Lehrer Journalism Fellowship "in honor of award-winning, longtime PBS NewsHour anchor and co-founder Jim Lehrer.” Lehrer passed away at age 85 in January. The award-winning newsman co-anchored "PBS NewsHour" alongside Robert MacNeil for two decades before anchoring the program solo for nearly 16 years.
NO CITIZENSHIP PROOF NEEDED. A federal appeals court panel rules Kansas cannot require voters to show proof of citizenship when registering.
NON-THEATER FILMS OKAYED FOR OSCARS. Eligibility for the next Oscars — set for Feb. 28, 2021 — is expanded to include films that were not release in theaters because of the nationwide shutdown.
MORE LOCUSTS SWARM EAST AFRICA. Another wave of locusts, 20 times larger than the first, are expected to swarm across East Africa, resulting in slashing agricultural production and mass food shortages.
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