Legislation delivers serious threat to California newspapers

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

This could be one of the last newspapers you get delivered to your home.

That may sound incredible, but a bill working its way through the Legislature could, if passed, end home delivery of some newspapers in California.

AB5, which has been characterized primarily as a fight over whether Lyft and Uber drivers should be company employees, would have much broader impacts on the California economy. Simply put: AB5 will probably sound the death knell for some printed versions of California newspapers. It’s not the only challenge to professional journalism in 2019, but it is by far the most serious.


Organized labor organizations are divided over this issue. While some are eager to try to organize workforces such as Uber drivers, others know it will mean a loss of union jobs — including those in our newsrooms.

Thousands of newspaper carriers, most of whom deliver several different newspapers, would lose their jobs if AB5 passes.

This is a sad, sad, story.