Happy Friday,

Today is the first installment of what I hope to become weekly notes. I hope to come up with a snarkier title (Sarah keeps vetoing my ideas). But enough of this, on to this week’s notes.

There are two bills before Congress that would positively affect the newspaper industry: Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA) (H.R. 1735 and S. 673) and the Local Journalism Sustainability Act (LJSA H.S. 7640).  I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with these and reach out to your representative to let them know you support them.

For those who don’t know, Column is our Public Notice partner. We use their platform to house Arizona Public Notices digitally. If your organization is not uploading them, please reach out. We need 100% participation to make this work and to protect Arizona’s Public Notices. I am also working with them to host webinars explaining their platform and services; stay tuned for more.

I also had an interesting call with Katherine Jacobsen from Committee to Protect Journalists. They are an incredible resource that is available to any journalist. They offer information on physical + digital safety, PPE guides, and digital safety. We will be working with them to create webinars that your staff can attend, free of charge, to ensure their safety in the upcoming election season.

Judging is well underway for the Arizona BNC contest. The ANA will know the winners by mid-August. More information will be coming out soon regarding the awards ceremony date, fall meeting, and convention.

That’s it for now. If you have any news to share, I’m easy to find – l.simpson@ananews.com or 602-261-7655.

Best, Lisa