Amended  IN  Senate  June 26, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  June 18, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  May 20, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  July 03, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 23, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1511

Introduced by Assembly Member Santiago
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Garcia)

February 17, 2023

An act to add Article 5.7 (commencing with Section 65054) to Chapter 1.5 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, relating to state government.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1511, as amended, Santiago. State government: Ethnic and Community Media Program.
Existing law establishes the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, within the Office of Planning and Research in the office of the Governor, to serve as the manager of the state’s highest priority public awareness and community outreach efforts.
This bill would create the Diverse, Ethnic, and Community Media Program in the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications for the purpose of helping state departments integrate ethnic and community media into their marketing, advertising, or outreach strategies. The bill would require the office, in administering the program, to assist state agencies and departments in marketing, advertising, and outreach to certain priority populations.
The bill would require a state agency or department that expends funds on marketing, advertising, or outreach to direct a certain percentage of those annual total expenditures to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets serving certain populations, as specified. specified, except as provided. The bill would specify that of the amount directed to ethnic media outlets, state agencies shall seek to direct at least 25% to outlets that are small businesses, including microbusinesses, as specified. The bill would require any private agency or intermediary that receives funds intended to purchase advertising for the state in ethnic media outlets or community media outlets to transmit at least 80% of those funds directly to the outlets and to reserve no more than 20% for activities managed by the agency or an intermediary, except as specified.
This bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California is the most diverse state in the nation and it spends considerable resources seeking to communicate messages of public interest to its residents. It is imperative that the state’s communication reach all of its residents, including, but not limited to, People of Color, rural communities, non-English speakers, working class neighborhoods, and other hard-to-reach communities. Those communication efforts will require new strategies and approaches that reflect the state’s demographics, take into account the changing media landscape, and put equity at the center of these efforts.
(b) California’s ethnic media sector consists of roughly 300 media outlets that publish and broadcast in California, serving at least 38 different ethnic, racial, and cultural communities with trusted, community-specific information and news coverage. Community media outlets often serve small communities that are not served by larger sources of news and culture. These outlets are the ideal medium through which to reach underserved communities, but have been underutilized in the deployment of state outreach and advertising campaigns.
(c) This act will remedy that disparity by directing more of the state’s expenditures on outreach to ethnic and community media to help them remain viable platforms for their communities to learn of news of interest to them and to have access to state communications of importance to them and their families.

SEC. 2.

 Article 5.7 (commencing with Section 65054) is added to Chapter 1.5 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, to read:
Article  5.7. Diverse, Ethnic, and Community Media Program

65054.
 (a) The Diverse, Ethnic, and Community Media Program is hereby established in the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, an office within the Office of Planning and Research in the office of the Governor, for the purpose of helping state departments integrate ethnic and community media into their marketing, advertising, or outreach strategies.
(b) For the purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:
(1) (A) “Ethnic media” means any organization that produces news or culturally relevant media that serves ethnic, racial, or cultural communities residing in California, including priority populations, racial and linguistic minorities, immigrant communities, indigenous groups, and other historically underserved and underrepresented groups.
(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), “priority populations” for purposes of this article, mean members of underserved, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach communities, including, but not limited to, people who are any of the following:
(i) Asian American.
(ii) Black or African American.
(iii) Immigrants or refugees.
(iv) Native American or members of Tribal communities.
(v) Latinx.
(vi) LGBTQ+.
(vii) Limited English proficiency (LEP).
(viii) Middle Eastern or North African.
(ix) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
(x) People with disabilities.
(xi) Religious minorities.
(xii) Low-income communities.
(2) “Ethnic media outlet” means an entity that provides a substantial amount of ethnic media content through broadcast, print, or digital means, including television, radio, or online outlets on a daily, weekly, or other regular interval, and that has continuously produced that content for at least one year.
(3) “Community media outlet” means a nonprofit organization, small business, or microbusiness, as defined in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 14837, in which at least one-half of the content is originally produced community news and cultural content of specific interest to a community, city, neighborhood, or region in the state through broadcast, print, or digital means, including television, radio, or online outlets on a daily, weekly, or other regular interval, and that has continuously produced that content for at least one year.
(4) “Office” means the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications.
(5) “Program” means the Diverse, Ethnic, and Community Media Program established pursuant to subdivision (a).

65054.1.
 The office shall assist state agencies and departments in marketing, advertising, and outreach to priority populations identified in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 65054.

65054.2.
 (a) A state agency or department that expends funds on marketing, advertising, or outreach shall direct expenditures to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets serving the populations identified in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 65054 as follows:
(1) From July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, inclusive, at least 30 percent of an agency’s annual total of expenditures on marketing, advertising, and outreach shall be directed to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets. Of the amount directed to ethnic media outlets, state agencies shall seek to direct at least 25 percent to outlets that are small businesses, including microbusinesses, as defined in Section 14837 of the Government Code.
(2) From July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, inclusive, at least 40 percent of an agency’s annual total of expenditures on marketing, advertising, and outreach shall be directed to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets. Of the amount directed to ethnic media outlets, state agencies shall seek to direct at least 25 percent to outlets that are small businesses, including microbusinesses, as defined in Section 14837 of the Government Code.
(3) Beginning July 1, 2027, at least 50 percent of an agency’s annual total of expenditures on marketing, advertising, and outreach shall be directed to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets. Of the amount directed to ethnic media outlets, state agencies shall seek to direct at least 25 percent to outlets that are small businesses, including microbusinesses, as defined in Section 14837 of the Government Code.
(b) The set-aside for spending on ethnic media outlets and community media outlets shall not apply to each marketing, advertising, or outreach campaign, as long as the agency meets the minimum thresholds described in subdivision (a) as a percentage of its annual total spending on marketing, advertising, and outreach.
(c) To the extent that subdivision (a) conflicts with a state agency’s or department’s obligation to issue notices required by law to be posted or distributed in specified media outlets, subdivision (a) shall not apply.
(d) (1) A state agency or department may apply to the executive officer of the office for a waiver of the requirements described in subdivision (a) for a specific advertising or outreach campaign. The application shall provide a particularized explanation regarding the public purpose that would be served by the issuance of a waiver.
(2) If the executive officer of the office finds that a public purpose would be served by granting the waiver, it may do so, in which case the waiver shall be posted on a website managed or operated by the office together with the explanation for the waiver.
(3) If a state agency of department is granted a waiver, any spending on a campaign granted a waiver shall not count as part of the department or agency’s expenditures for calculating the amounts required to be spent on marketing, advertising, or outreach in ethnic or community media.

(c)

(e) A private agency or intermediary that receives funds intended to purchase advertising for the state in ethnic media outlets or community media outlets shall transmit at least 80 percent of those funds directly to the outlets, and shall reserve no more than 20 percent for administration, commissions, or communications managed by the agency or an intermediary. This requirement shall not apply to spending for communications or outreach that does not involve advertising in ethnic or community media.