Free Press Launches Campaign to Use FCC Airwaves Auction to Strengthen Journalism and Serve Local Communities

Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund launched a campaign to set aside proceeds from the auction of public TV station licenses to strengthen local journalism and community-information projects. According to new Free Press research, at least 54 public television stations around the country are taking part of the ongoing Federal Communications Commission broadcast incentive auction. Spectrum held by public TV stations alone is expected to bring in as much as $6 billion in the auction, with state governments, local school boards, university trustees and other station owners each likely raking in tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for taking their stations off the air or moving down the dial to free up bandwidth to meet the growing demand mobile data.

The initial phase of the campaign — which is being launched at NewsVoices.org — will focus on New Jersey and urge lawmakers there to devote a portion of the proceeds from auctioning state-owned public TV licenses to support innovative journalism and community-driven projects across the state. Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund will be pushing to create a $250 million permanent public fund to support local information needs for decades to come. Ideas for use of proceeds include support for community-focused digital news sites, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, public data access apps and other civic engagement tools.