AB5 could be death knell to printed daily newspapers | Tim Talk | Tim Hunt | DanvilleSanRamon.com |
By Tim Hunt
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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)
About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)
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AB5 could be death knell to printed daily newspapers
Uploaded: Oct 1, 2019
Newspaper readers and publishers can thank the state Legislature and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez in particular for destroying what's left of their business model.
Online advertising, dominated by the "Duopoly" of Google and Facebook plus Craig's List, has greatly diminished advertising revenue. Craig's destroyed the formerly very profitable classified category in the 2000s and other revenue has continued to fall.
As revenue has dropped, so has the reporting staff as publishers strive to stay in the black and in business.
The one solid market that exists for print daily newspapers is Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation. Folks in their 50s and younger, with rare exceptions, are not interested in print publication preferring digital news on their phones.
Gonzalez, a labor organizer before being elected to the Assembly from San Diego, ramrodded AB 5 through both houses in the Capitol building. It codified and modified a California Supreme Court decision that defined the rules about whether workers are employees or contractors (freelancers).
It's been widely followed by interested parties because it was aimed, in particular, at ridesharing companies Lyft and Uber. Both companies use independent contractors to move passengers. It's an open question how they will try to comply with the law, but one provision—that contactors are not engaged in the primary business of the corporation—will be quite troublesome.
Publishers, according to Jim Ewert, the general counsel of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, face two major challenges.
1.	The law puts extreme limits on freelancers who typically have worked on a per piece basis (that's how the Weekly compensates me). Under the new law, If a writer or other designated freelancer contributes more than 35 pieces per year (less than once a week, it should be noted) then they must become an employee or must set themselves up as their own business (either sole proprietorship, limited liability company or S corp) and market and advertise their services beyond a single publication. An LLC or S corp requires the stiff $800 annual fee to the state for the "privilege" of doing business here and paying taxes here.
2.	More challenging for daily papers or those not delivering through the mail, it requires the distribution force to be employees. Traditionally, publishers have contracted with independent distributors who then contract with carriers to deliver the papers. In the challenging last 15 years, most distributors have consolidated to delivering several publications to generate more revenue as the number of subscribers has dropped. This will not take effect until 2021, giving publishers a year to convince legislators to change the law or figure out a different distribution method.
Gonzalez was lobbied hard by the publishers' group, but was intractable to say the least. Ewert indicated she didn't seem to care about the impact on the industry. He told me, "Not only unsympathetic, but hostile. Accusing newspapers of exploiting individuals. She had no understanding of how distribution networks operate in 2019."
Her legislation, absent an innovative delivery solution, likely will spell the end to the daily printed newspaper. There's no way publishers can afford to make the delivery force employees and deliver papers at a price consumers will pay.
At its height, publishers grossed about $49 billion in revenues in 2007. That's fallen to $25 billion in 2018. Readership has plunged from more than 63 million to 30 million over the last 45 years. Although digital revenue has increased, it still made up just 30 percent of ad revenues in 2018.
In short, the printed paper still is producing 70 percent of the ad revenue.
"Print revenue still drives bottom line," Ewert said. Revenue on print side subsidized digital transition. Fewer readers, fewer eyeballs means lower ad revenue. Less revenue means fewer journalists in the whole domino effect. This argument was unpersuasive with author."
Eliminate print and the impacts are devastating, particularly for community newspapers. The national publications will survive—it's the ones tied to the community that will suffer.
All thanks to a labor organizer turned legislator—exemptions were carved out for other industries such as real estate agents, hairstylists, doctors, insurance agents, securities brokers, accountants and barbers.
Clearly, publishers lack clout in the Democrat-dominated houses of the Legislature and in the governor's office.
What is democracy worth to you?
+ 13 people like this
Posted by James Michael, a resident of Val Vista,
on Oct 1, 2019 at 11:06 am
James Michael is a registered user.
One Party Rule...they do what they want, just like in Communist countries.
Posted by DKHSK, a resident of Bridle Creek,
DKHSK is a registered user.
I'm very interested in how your Democrat colleagues feel about this change in events?
On the one hand, they are democrats and probably prefer a heavier hand in governments control of our daily life. On the other, this hits their pocket books and changes their lifestyle. It seems as if the democrats eat their own on this one.
How do they like it?
I'd laugh about this if it wasn't for the fact that not only did they change this for your industry, they went after USEFUL companies like Uber and Lyft.
For nothing more than to help out the taxi industry.
+ 3 people like this
Posted by Michael Austin, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Oct 1, 2019 at 12:49 pm
About eight years ago, the Bay Area News Group started delivering the China Daily Newspaper to Pleasanton and other East Bay cities neighborhoods. When I contacted them and pointed out that this newspaper is the official English print version of the Chinese Communist Party, the PLA, Peoples Liberation Army. After my email, they stopped the distribution of this newspaper. They obviously did not know what they were distributing, they wanted to strengthen their bottom line.
+ Like this comment
Posted by Evan McLaughlin, a resident of Country Fair,
on Oct 1, 2019 at 2:32 pm
Misclassified workers cost the state of California loses $7 billion every year. The State Supreme Court recently created a new test for hiring entities, such as newspaper publishers, for determining whether a hired worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Rather than direct your hyperbole at the law and its author, maybe you can fess up to the rampant misclassification of delivery carriers already happening under the law, regardless of Dynamex or AB 5. Lawsuit after lawsuit filed by delivery personnel have prevailed against publishers even in the Borello context because some papers have cut corners. A bona fide business that contracts with multiple newspapers will still be able to operate as an independent business, as long as it's not a masquerade for misclassifying individual workers that are really doing the work of an employee.
on Oct 2, 2019 at 4:00 am
"Misclassified workers cost the state of California loses $7 billion every year."
What do you have against citizens having money they earned? Why must the "state of California" win against the citizen?
Let me put this to you in a personal way: the Pleasanton Weekly will now only allow Tim to produce enough articles to avoid breaking the law. The same will happen to Uber and Lyft for the services they produce.
So Tim suffers, Uber and Lyft drivers suffer and guess what, now the state of California suffers because in their stupidity of trying to protect one industry under the guise of "misclassification", they squash others and in the end, get less tax revenue then they were before.
Democrats logic for all to see.
Big money pouring into Livermore referendums
By Tim Hunt | 5 comments | 1,267 views