New law requires Illinois media firms to disclose sale to out-of-state buyers 120 days in advance

Among the nearly 300 new laws set to take effect Jan. 1 in Illinois is one impacting potential sales of local media outlets to out-of-state buyers.

Senate Bill 3592 passed the Senate in April. Sponsor of the bill state Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford, said it requires local media outlets looking to sell to an out-of-state buyer to provide a 120-day notice to the state and their staff.

“Private equity firms are coming and buying newspapers, consolidating them until they provide very little local news content with no local journalist and sometimes those newsrooms are shut down as what happened in southern Illinois not that long ago,” Stadelman said in April.

State Sen. Jason Plummer said that requirement will backfire.

“For that four months, when employees leave and advertisers leave … the value of that property will go down,” Plummer said during floor debate. “The value of that business will go down. So our local media will be sold to hedge funds at a cheaper price because of this piece of legislation.”

The measure also creates a journalism student scholarship program to encourage more students to pursue a career in journalism.

Before the measure passed the House in May, state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, said she likes the journalism scholarship program that the law sets up. But, the requirement for local media selling to an out-of-state buyer to notify the state and their employees 120-days before the sale is wrong.

“I really caution you on this 120 days. It’s too long. It’s not required from other industries,” she said during floor debate. “I think there’s issues with interstate commerce here that really need to be addressed.”

Stadelman said the goal is to ensure there is quality, local journalism.

“By requiring this notice, the hope is other local newspapers, nonprofits, other corporations will have the opportunity to step in and help keep these publishers [stay] local,” he said.