• by Ray Schultz , March 12, 2024

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed a resolution that could funnel advertising to small local media, the Board announced on Tuesday. 

Introduced on March 5 by Supervisor Matt Dorsey, the resolution urges city departments to spend at least half of their advertising and outreach dollars in locally owned community and ethnic media outlets. 

Such a policy, while presumably non-binding, would be similar to those emerging in New York and Chicago, it says. 

“Democracy depends on robust independent journalism, and robust independent journalism depends on thriving community- and neighborhood-centered news outlets,” Dorsey says. 

Dorsey continuesL: “With the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ passage of this resolution today, we’re expanding on our City’s commitment to its diverse communities by supporting the diverse community-based journalism that’s part of it.”

“Local news is critical to our democracy, and we know that San Franciscans are hungry for more,” adds Maya Chupkov, media & democracy program manager at California Common Cause. “This is a critical first step in the right direction of reinvesting in our local media, and in turn, reinvesting in our communities and democracy.” 

The Board also encourages the city to publicly report how much ad money is spent in ethnic and community publications and overall each year.