• by Ray Schultz , March 10, 2024

A  Connecticut state legislator has proposed a new way of helping local media.

A bill authored by Rep. Kate Farrar (D-West Hartford) would require “executive branch state agencies to purchase a certain percentage of procured print or digital advertising from in-state commercial or nonprofit news publishers.”

A hearing on the measure, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Matthew L. Lesser, was conducted last Friday by the Connecticut General Assembly. Several local newspapers offered testimony in support.

The legislation requires that “each state agency of the executive branch of the state government procuring print or digital advertising shall contract with a commercial or nonprofit publisher of news whose principal place of business is in this state for not less than fifty per cent of the total annual value of such agency's contracts for such advertising.”

However, publications owned by a parent company located outside the state would be deemed as being from that location, not from Connecticut. 

Farrar hopes to block “hedge funds and media conglomerates who pursue cost cutting measures – leading to coverage that is more national, less diverse and, in some cases, more politically polarized,” she said in written testimony, according to Connecticut Internal Investigator.