Start the Presses: Musk's trillion-dollar moment puts California's local news crisis in stark relief

Dan Evans

Dan Evans

On Friday, the same day Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire, the California Legislature removed a relatively tiny amount of funding from its draft budget that would have helped fund positions and training for journalists, supporting dwindling local news coverage throughout the state.

The amount of money potentially flowing to California from the SpaceX IPO is expected to be enormous. Some estimates have put the state tax windfall somewhere between $1.5 billion and $4 billion, driven largely by employees and investors who remain in California even as Musk himself decamped to Texas.

The amount missing for an industry that has a far more direct impact on the everyday lives of most Californians is a fraction of this: $15 million.

The requested amount equals less than 1% of the low end of the estimated SpaceX-related tax windfall. Or, in slightly more understandable terms: percentage-wise, it is roughly what you would pay in sales tax on a used 2020 Nissan Altima.

And yet that relatively small investment could help keep reporters in communities that otherwise may have no one consistently covering their city councils, school boards, courts, elections, water agencies, wildfire risks, housing debates or public spending. It would provide support and training for ethnic media organizations, among the most vulnerable groups in our ink-stained lot.

All this is not theoretical for the Napa Valley Register, nor for anyone who understands the vital role local news plays in Napa County and throughout California.

Brett Marsh, who splits his time between coverage of the wine industry and American Canyon, has a significant part of his salary funded by the California Local News Fellowship program. His position is safe; his contract runs through late 2027. But if this money disappears from the budget, the program itself may be at risk. That means the pipeline, so recently turned on, could disappear into dust just as quickly.

This is not theoretical in Napa. Brett's work has allowed the Register to deepen coverage in a city that too often gets less attention than it deserves, while also expanding our reporting on the wine industry, which remains central to Napa County's economy, identity and future.

Another part of the Fellowship program potentially on the chopping block is one that gives mid-career journalists a chance to step into editing positions.

That may sound inside-baseball, but it is not. One of the least understood problems in local journalism is not just that newsrooms have fewer reporters. It is that the career ladder has been kicked apart.

Young journalists enter the profession with energy, talent and a sense of mission. Then, after a few years, many make the awful but logical calculation that they will never earn enough to raise a family, buy a home or build a stable life on a reporter's salary. So they leave.

The result is a profession that loses too much talent too early. It also means the people who remain in leadership roles at small newspapers (and yes, I understand the irony of pointing this out) still skew middle-aged, male and white.

These programs do not solve the local news crisis by themselves. But they do something real. They put reporters in communities. They help newsrooms cover places that have been overlooked. They create paths for younger and more diverse journalists to stay in the field long enough to lead it.

When those paths disappear, so does something larger.

All this dust is the harbinger of the news deserts that plague so much of this state and country. A news desert does not usually arrive all at once. It creeps in.

First, the school board meeting goes uncovered. Then the city council agenda is noticed only when something explodes on social media. Then no one is watching the budget. Then candidates can make claims with little scrutiny. Then rumors become the public record. Then the loudest voice in the room becomes the truth.

By the time a community realizes what it has lost, the civic muscle memory is gone.

We have to stop that from happening here.

After the legislature votes on its budget on Monday, it will begin working with the governor on the final version. It is not too late for them to add back the $15 million. I urge you to reach out right away to our local legislators and ask them to advocate for us - and for you. Here are the state lawmakers who represent Napa County:

Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters

State Sen. Chris Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento

To give you a sense of what to say, here is what I wrote to Cabaldon and his chief of staff, Aaron Skaggs, on Friday afternoon.

Please do not simply cut and paste this. Use it as a starting point to explain why you believe local news is vital. Add your own examples of how the Register, the St. Helena Star, the Calistoga Tribune, the Yountville Sun or other local publications have helped you feel more connected to and knowledgeable about the community you live in.

Sen. Cabaldon and Mr. Skaggs:

Thank you again for taking the time to chat with me about the pending funding for the California Local News Fellowship and Propel initiatives. I was saddened to hear that the $15 million slated for those programs had been removed from the draft budget, and hope you are willing and able to add your voices to those who very much want to see it restored.

As you know, local journalism is in a precarious position. This funding helps newsrooms expand their coverage - providing quality news and information to underserved areas - but it also gives younger journalists the ability to join the profession. Later on, it provides opportunities for advancement to the editing ranks that might not otherwise exist due to economic pressures.

It is not too late to turn all this around, but the clock is approaching midnight. I urge you to support this funding and do whatever you feel is appropriate to help get it passed.

Yours,

Dan Evans

Editor & Publisher

Napa Valley Publishing Co.

On top of all this, let's look at the local media scene.

Just last month, the owner of the Calistoga Tribune and Yountville Sun announced the closure of those papers. There are attempts locally to revive those titles, and I applaud those efforts. These are storied names with deep roots in their communities.

But my own back-of-the-napkin calculations show the barrier to sustainability is high, and perhaps insurmountable, for anyone trying to operate them as traditional, profitable local newspaper businesses.

There is a real danger here, and we have seen it in other places, for titles with long and proud histories to become shadows of their former selves. Sometimes they become clickbait factories. Sometimes they become partisan pamphlets. Sometimes they become little more than a logo and a Facebook page.

When that happens, community trust can be blown away faster than most people think.

Please consider reaching out to our elected officials, particularly the ones in Sacramento. Tell them local news matters. Tell them Napa County is watching. Tell them the cost of letting local journalism wither is far higher than the cost of helping it survive.

We are still a democracy.

Let's act like it.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.