Bill Text: IL SB3592 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Creates the Strengthening Community Media Act. Provides that a local news organization shall not be sold to a company without giving written notice 120 days before the sales occurs to specified individuals and organizations. Amends the Higher Education Student Assistance Act. Creates the Journalism Student Scholarship Program. Provides that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall award scholarships to students who will work at a local news organization in the State for a period of not less than 2 years.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-04-29 - Added Alternate Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Harry Benton [SB3592 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SB3592-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning journalism.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Strengthening Community Media Act.
Section 5. Findings.
(a) Illinois benefits from robust local news services that
provide trusted and essential information to the community
that limits corruption, encourages citizen participation,
helps combat misinformation, and mitigates community and
individual alienation.
(b) Local news in Illinois and throughout the country is
struggling with newspaper advertising dropping 82% nationally
since 2000, contributing to a 57% drop in the number of
reporters at newspapers and thousands of closures.
(c) Local news outlets are trusted sources of information
for communities throughout Illinois and advertising spending
with these outlets carries a substantial benefit for the
effective dissemination of important government information to
the communities it serves.
(d) Government initiatives to increase spending on local
news advertising has been manifestly successful in both
supporting local news outlets and improving the information

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diet of communities in several major cities.
(e) Illinois can and will implement such an initiative
while preserving the editorial independence of local news
outlets selling advertising space under this Act, and
recognizes that any diversion of advertising spending that has
the effect or appearance of an attempt to influence the
editorial content of a local news organization violates the
federal and State guarantees of freedom of the press and
freedom of speech.
Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
"Department" means the Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity.
"Local news organization" means an entity that:
(1) engages professionals to create, edit, produce,
and distribute original content concerning matters of
public interest, through reporting activities, including
conducting interviews, observing current events, or
analyzing documents or other information;
(2) has at least one employee employed full-time for
30 hours a week or more dedicated to providing coverage of
Illinois or local Illinois community news and living
within 50 miles of the coverage area, who gathers,
prepares, collects, photographs, writes, edits, reports,
or publishes original local or State community news for
dissemination to the local or State community;

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(3) in the case of print publications, has published
at least one print publication per month over the previous
12 months, and either holds a valid United States Postal
Service periodical permit or has at least 25% of its
content dedicated to local news;
(4) in the case of digital-only entities, has
published one piece about the community per week over the
previous 12 months and has at least 33% of its digital
audience in Illinois, averaged over a 12-month period;
(5) in the case of hybrid entities that that have both
print and digital outlets, meets the requirements in
either paragraph (3) or (4) of this definition;
(6) has disclosed in its print publication or on its
website its beneficial ownership or, in the case of a
not-for-profit entity, its board of directors;
(7) in the case of an entity that maintains tax status
under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue
Code, has declared the coverage of local or State news as
the stated mission in its filings with the Internal
Revenue Service; and
(8) has not received more than 50% of its gross
receipts for the previous year from political action
committees or other entities described in Section 527 of
the federal Internal Revenue Code, or from an organization
that maintains Section 501(c)(4) or 501(c)(6) status under
the federal Internal Revenue Code.

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Section 15. Notice of sale of a local news organization. A
local news organization shall not be sold to a company without
giving written notice 120 days before the sales occurs to the
following:
(1) affected employees and representatives of affected
employees;
(2) the Department and the county government in which
the local news organization is located; and
(3) any in-State nonprofit organization in the
business of buying local news organizations.
Section 90. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act is
amended by adding Section 65.125 as follows:
(110 ILCS 947/65.125 new)
Sec. 65.125. Journalism Student Scholarship Program.
(a) As used in this Section, "local news organization" has
the meaning given to that term in the Strengthening Community
Media Act.
(b) In order to encourage academically talented Illinois
students to pursue careers in journalism, especially in
underserved areas of the State, and to provide those students
with financial assistance to increase the likelihood that they
will complete their full academic commitment and elect to
remain in Illinois to pursue a career in journalism, subject

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to appropriation, the Commission shall implement and
administer the Journalism Student Scholarship Program. The
Commission shall annually award scholarships to persons
preparing to work in Illinois, with preference given to those
preparing to work in underserved areas. These scholarships
shall be awarded to individuals who make application to the
Commission and agree to sign an agreement under which the
recipient pledges that, within the 2-year period following the
termination of the academic program for which the recipient
was awarded a scholarship, the recipient shall:
(1) begin working in journalism in this State for a
period of not less than 2 years;
(2) fulfill this obligation at local news
organization; and
(3) upon request of the Commission, provide the
Commission with evidence that the recipient is fulfilling
or has fulfilled the terms of the teaching agreement
provided for in this subsection.
(c) An eligible student is a student who meets the
following qualifications:
(1) is a resident of this State and a citizen or
eligible noncitizen of the United States;
(2) is a high school graduate or a person who has
received an Illinois high school diploma;
(3) is enrolled or accepted, on at least a half-time
basis, at an institution of higher learning; and

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