The News/Media Alliance and its allies successfully advocated for inclusion of the JCPA in the NDAA in December, only to have it removed after Meta threatened to remove news from its platform and Republicans reversed support and demanded a “clean” bill. Threats like Meta made were attempted before the Australian government passed its Code — they were unsuccessful, and news publishers ultimately got paid. As the tech platforms compensate news publishers around the world, it demonstrates the demand and economic value for news.

In the 117^th Congress, the JCPA garnered bipartisan support with 75 co-sponsors in the House and 15 in the Senate. The Alliance continues to hold conversations with the JCPA’s Congressional champions, who intend to reintroduce the bill in the 118^th Congress.

The following is adapted from Rep. Ken Buck’s new book Crushed: Big Tech’s War on Free Speech.

The first brilliant idea Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had was to “crawl” — and trawl — the World Wide Web. Using spiders, it would copy what it found, create vast databases of web content, and then “index” that content, evaluating it for relevancy against search queries. The logic rules driving those relevance evaluations are known as the Google algorithm.

That algorithm is used to return search results. Google then launched its business using other sites’ content. And one of the primary reliable content creators is newspapers.

To further our advocacy efforts, America’s Newspapers will host our annual legislative fly-in in Washington, D.C., March 8 and 9. This is a coordinated effort to reach as many legislators as possible on Thursday, March 9, and to promote the issues important to newspapers.

This legislative fly-in is a unique opportunity for our members to meet with their elected officials to (further) establish a relationship with them and to ask for their support of initiatives important to local newspapers.

The America’s Newspapers Executive Development Program, funded in part by the Inland Press Foundation, gives the next generation of newspaper leaders the opportunity to connect and gain valuable insights from industry leaders and their peers.

This is a six-part program focused on the core topics that emerging leaders need to further their careers. The curriculum of the program will be tactical, developmental and inspirational with participants gaining exposure to multiple disciplines.

Applications will be accepted until Feb. 20. Applicants will be notified by Feb. 28 if they are accepted so they can plan and book their travel to the Mega-Conference.

Why you should attend and bring your team:

Learn from our Solutions Partners — particularly how new technologies can improve sales and save money.

Case studies of newspapers’ successful strategies that you can implement at your newspaper.

The all-important hallway conversations with colleagues.

The Mega-Conference also is a great opportunity to reward your managers, boost their confidence and help them get their swagger back!

But act fast; there are a limited number of registrations available at this rate! Team membership discounts are for newspapers only.

Solutions Partners: Attend the 2023 Mega-Conference to connect with executives and decision-makers! Vendor and supplier companies that support the news industry can register to attend the conference with full access to sessions, receptions and the Mega-Conference Town Square. Solutions Roundtables are limited to Roundtable sponsors and news media attendees.

Sponsorship opportunities at the Mega-Conference also are available! Contact Patty Slusher at pslusher@newspapers.org for more information!