Issue # 863 | June 20, 2025 | | |
In this Issue:
NYS Legislative Wrap-up 2025; Kimberly King named managing editor of the Plattsburgh Press-Republican; Daily Gazette Editorial: Give citizens faster access to public records; Our 5-year fight to publish NY's police misconduct records, and what we've found so far; Renss Lens: A Clear View into Rensselaer County's Week; NY Times Announcing ‘Hard Fork Live’ Interviewees; Reporters Committee names Eric Feder Local Legal Initiative director; Americans turn to social media and video for news more than any other source; Critical Safety & Legal Training Webinar for Journalists; Plus, newspaper training webinars and special events.
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NYS Legislative Wrap-up 2025
From Diane Kennedy, NYNPA President -
The state Assembly gaveled out shortly after midnight Tuesday, following the Senate, which adjourned last Thursday. With that, the 2025 legislative session has come to an end. For newspapers, it was a very successful session overall.
1) Thanks to the strong advocacy of Governor Kathy Hochul, the Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Tax Credit, enacted in 2024, was expanded to ensure that individual newspapers under group ownership will each be eligible for the maximum refundable credit of $300,000 per year for each of the three years of the program. With the final legislation now in place, Empire State Development will finalize the regulations governing the program, likely sometime this summer. The credits apply to the 2025 tax year, so newspapers will be able to apply in early 2026. NYNPA will work very closely with ESD to ensure that our members are up to speed on the application process.
We will also continue to advocate for a funding stream for not-for-profit newspapers.
2) Unfortunately, the budget also enacted revisions to the state's auto-renewal law and created a new law governing algorithmic pricing. Although we joined with other business groups to urge changes to the legislation, no changes were made before the budget bills were passed. The algorithmic pricing law, which will take effect in July, requires disclosure to consumers when a business uses their personal data to set prices. The auto-renewal law, which will take effect in November, creates operational difficulties for subscriber-based businesses like newspapers and magazines. We will provide our members with additional materials regarding compliance requirements as we obtain them. We will also continue to advocate for changes to both laws when the legislature returns in January.
Related legislation proposed by Attorney General Tish James to revise the state's consumer protection laws passed both houses in the final hours of session. The bill was significantly improved at the request of business groups prior to enactment. We will be sharing enacted legislation with our company legal experts to determine whether we need to advocate for changes when the bill is sent to the Governor. More
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Kimberly King named managing editor of the Plattsburgh Press-Republican
From pressrepublican.com - Kimberly King has been named managing editor of the Plattsburgh Press-Republican, General Manager Scott Bresett announced recently.
- King previously served as managing editor of the La Porte County, Indiana, Herald Argus before joining CNHI, parent company of the Press-Republican, in 2017 at newspapers in Anderson and Goshen, Indiana. She most recently served as managing editor at the Kokomo Tribune, which in 2023 earned the Hoosier State Press Association’s Blue Ribbon Award for top daily newspaper in Indiana. It was the first time the newspaper won the award since its inception in 1850. More
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Daily Gazette Editorial: Give citizens faster access to public records
From dailygazette.com - You know what happens when you expect something and it doesn’t arrive right away, or it doesn’t arrive at all.
A package. A check. An Uber. A love letter.
Now imagine if they’re messing with your rights — particularly your right to know about vital information from your government.
Information that affects your finances and your taxes or your property. Information that affects your neighborhood, your quality of life or your safety. Information that affects your environment, your kids’ education, even your freedom. Information that might reveal who’s getting special treatment or benefits at your expense.
That’s the information that government holds.
And it’s often the information that government officials don’t want you to know and for which they’ll purposely delay responses to your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests until you either give up, don’t need it anymore or are forced to take them to court, at which time you’re likely to just forget it. We call it ‘deny by delay.’ And it’s easy for them to get away with it.
But new legislation that passed the state Senate last week and which will come before the Assembly this week will significantly shift the clock in the people’s favor. More
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Our 5-year fight to publish NY's police misconduct records, and what we've found so far
From uticaod.com - Five years ago, I led a charge to obtain details of police misconduct from hundreds of police departments across New York, made legally public in the state in 2020.
I knew that police could try to dodge, obstruct, and reject the public’s right to that information, but I was still unprepared for the delays and disregard for transparency we’ve encountered from some police departments since the beginning.
I sent out the first batch of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests in the days following the repeal of section 50-a of the state’s Civil Rights Law, which made police misconduct documents subject to public view in June 2020. This was just weeks after George Floyd was killed during an encounter with police officers in Minneapolis.
At the time, I was employed at MuckRock, a nonprofit that helps people navigate the public records process. As part of my work there, I had requested lots of materials from all kinds of government agencies and helped others do the same, so I knew a few things about how police departments circumvent transparency.
Still, I was not familiar with the struggle that so many families and fair law advocates faced to get these records. Immediately after section 50-a’s repeal, colleagues in the government transparency arena and I had conversations about the risk of some police departments deleting their records — I felt an urgent need to get out ahead of that possibility. More
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Renss Lens: A Clear View into Rensselaer County's Week
From NYVT Media Press Release - In an era when local newsrooms are shrinking and small-town stories risk going untold, a quiet revolution is unfolding in Rensselaer County, New York. It’s called Renss Lens–a weekly newsletter that's bringing back the neighborhood feel of journalism with a modern twist.
Owned and operated by NYVT Media, a regional news organization known for its dedication to rural journalism with high-caliber reporting, Renss Lens is part of a larger mission: to ensure that even the smallest towns have access to strong, reliable local journalism. NYVT Media’s commitment to community-driven reporting is deeply embedded in the DNA of Renss Lens.
Launching its first edition this week, Renss Lens will deliver a curated snapshot of the region’s most relevant happenings, from town board decisions and school events to farm reports and community milestones. The newsletter is anticipated to quickly become a trusted source for residents in towns like Hoosick, Pittstown, Stephentown, and other rural areas in Rensselaer County often overlooked by larger regional media outlets.
A Hyperlocal Focus
At its core, Renss Lens is about community. Its strength lies in its laser-focused approach to local stories that matter, like road repairs, budget hearings, high school sports, college happenings, seasonal festivals, and even the occasional barn-raising. Readers will find in-depth coverage that isn’t reported anywhere else.
“We’re not chasing clicks, we’re telling the stories of our neighbors,” said the newsletter’s editor, Doug La Rocque, a journalist with roots in Rensselaer County. “There’s a hunger for real, local news that doesn’t get buried beneath national headlines.” More
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Announcing ‘Hard Fork Live’ Interviewees
From NY Times Press Release - Monday, The New York Times unveiled the full lineup of special guests for its inaugural “Hard Fork Live” event, to be held on Tuesday, June 24, at SFJAZZ.
Confirmed guests include:
- Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI
- Patrick Collison, co-founder and chief executive officer of Stripe
- Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer of OpenAI
- Kathryn Zealand, founder and chief executive officer of Skip
Interviewees will be joined onstage by hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton for a live recording of their acclaimed podcast, “Hard Fork.” Audiences can expect big ideas, tough questions, fun games and plenty of chances to join in the conversation as Kevin and Casey dive into the wild world of A.I. The show will be taped before a live audience and published on the “Hard Fork” feed.
“Hard Fork” is a show about the future that’s already here. Each week, Kevin and Casey explore and make sense of the latest stories in the rapidly changing world of tech, bringing listeners news, interviews and analysis from the bleeding edge with curiosity and humor. More
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Reporters Committee names Eric Feder Local Legal Initiative director
From rcfp.org - Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced Eric Feder as its Local Legal Initiative director, where he will oversee the growing program that provides local news organizations the free legal support they need to pursue enterprise and investigative reporting in their communities. Feder joins the Reporters Committee after nearly 13 years at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, where he was most recently a partner focused on media, intellectual property, and commercial litigation.
“We are thrilled to welcome Eric to the Reporters Committee and the Local Legal Initiative,” said Reporters Committee Vice President of Legal Programs Lisa Zycherman. “His experience protecting journalists’ legal rights makes him an excellent fit to lead this powerhouse team of local attorneys dedicated to delivering legal resources to newsrooms that need them most.”
Feder’s hire marks the latest addition to the Local Legal Initiative team, which most recently expanded to Indiana. Now in its sixth year, the program has transformed the local news landscape in Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, helping journalists in those states access public records and court proceedings, defend their rights to gather and report the news, and hold local government accountable. More
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Americans turn to social media and video for news more than any other source
From poynter.org - Social media and video networks have overtaken television to become the most widely used source of news among Americans, according to a new Reuters Institute report.
In a survey conducted at the end of January and beginning of February, 54% of Americans said they had accessed news via social and video networks within the past week. TV and online news sites were the next most common sources, with roughly half of respondents saying they had gotten news from those media. Seven percent said they used artificial intelligence chatbots.
The report’s lead author, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism senior research associate Nic Newman, pointed out that the survey coincided with the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. Yet the “Trump bump” that news outlets experienced in 2016, when audiences devoured news about the unconventional president, did not materialize this year.
“This was roughly in the week of the inauguration. So you kind of would expect television news to have a huge bump,” Newman said. “And we didn’t really find that. We saw social media getting a big bump, but the other, more traditional outlets — not so much.” More
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NPPA Advocacy Webinar: Critical Safety & Legal Training Webinar for Journalists - Sat., June 21, 2025, 1-2 pm ET
From NPPA - Do you have questions such as: What kind of equipment do journalists need while covering protests? How can they reduce the risk of getting caught up in mass arrests or violence? What to do if someone nearby is injured?
In the face of protests throughout the United States, this webinar will examine recent incidents in Los Angeles and help journalists prepare for covering civil disorder while staying safe in the field.
This hour-long session will focus on necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and its proper use, first-aid, encirclement exit strategies, safeguarding our peers, maintaining situational awareness, risk assessment, police use of force, deployment of less lethal munitions and response to dispersal orders.
Click here for more information and to register to attend.
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In a New York Minute is the weekly electronic newsletter of NYNPA, providing you with member news, money-saving and money-generating ideas, and upcoming events. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter please reply to this e-mail or contact mmiller@nynpa.com. For more on NYNPA please visit us on the web at www.nynpa.com.
Mary Miller
Education Services Director
New York News Publishers Association
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