Why Maryland’s New Local News Order Is Good for Everyone, Not Just Newsrooms
Byline: By Dave Carberry, founder of Enradius, the company behind Maryland Ad Network
Last week Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order asking Maryland state agencies to place half of their advertising dollars directly with Maryland news organizations. It’s an aspirational goal, not a mandate, but it sends a clear signal about where public money should go.
I’ve spent more than 25 years in broadcast, local and digital media, starting at radio stations in Baltimore. In that time I’ve watched a lot of local advertising drift away from the outlets that serve their communities and into national platforms that don’t. Some of that was inevitable. Much of it wasn’t. This order pushes some of those dollars back home, and I think that’s good for Maryland in more ways than one. It’s also the problem we created Maryland Ad Network to solve.
What the order actually does
The order is short, and the details matter:
- It sets a goal of 50%. State agencies should aim to spend half of their media and advertising budgets directly with Maryland news organizations.
- It defines who counts. The Department of General Services will publish a list of eligible Maryland news organizations by Nov. 1.
- It tells agencies how to buy. The Office of State Procurement will issue guidance to agencies by Dec. 1.
- It looks out for the smallest newsrooms. Agencies are asked to prioritize outlets serving underserved communities.
- It has sensible exemptions. Out-of-state tourism marketing, student recruitment, employee recruitment and economic development advertising aimed outside Maryland aren’t covered. Those campaigns need to reach people who don’t live here.
Just as important is what the order doesn’t do. It doesn’t create a new program or raise taxes. It redirects money the state was already spending to advertise to Marylanders, toward the outlets Marylanders actually read.
Why local advertising left local media
Local ad dollars didn’t leave because local media stopped working. They left because national platforms made buying easy. One login, one campaign, targeting by ZIP code, a report at the end of the month.
Buying local media has looked very different. An agency that wanted to reach every county in Maryland through local outlets would need to contact dozens of publishers, each with its own rate card, ad sizes, deadlines, invoices and reporting. Most state agencies, and most businesses, don’t have the staff for that. So the money took the path of least resistance, and local newsrooms lost revenue they had earned with their audiences.
The result is the problem the governor’s order is trying to fix: public money meant to reach Marylanders flowing to companies outside the state, while the newsrooms covering Maryland communities struggle to keep reporters on staff.
Why we created Maryland Ad Network
That gap is exactly why we created Maryland Ad Network.
We saw two groups that needed each other and couldn’t easily connect. On one side were Maryland’s independent publishers, with loyal local audiences and trusted brands but no easy way to sell to large advertisers. On the other were agencies, tourism offices and businesses that wanted to reach Marylanders in a trusted local setting but couldn’t manage dozens of separate buys.
Maryland Ad Network brings those publishers together so an advertiser can reach readers across many local outlets through one plan, one point of contact and one report, focused on the counties and communities that matter to them. Publishers stay independent and keep doing what they do best. They get access to advertisers they wouldn’t reach on their own, and they get paid for the audiences they’ve built.
When we started, the case for this model was mostly an argument we made one meeting at a time. Now the state has made the same argument in an executive order: dollars spent to reach Marylanders should support the Maryland media that serves them. It’s also why we’re building the same model in other states.
Who benefits
Marylanders. Local outlets cover the school board meetings, county budgets, road projects and public safety stories that national platforms skip. When those outlets close, communities lose the people who show up and ask questions. Steering public advertising their way helps keep that coverage alive, using money the state was already spending.
State agencies. Agencies advertise because they need people to act: enroll in a program, get a vaccine, apply for a job, prepare for a storm. Local news is where people go for information they trust about their own community. A health message next to a story about your county’s schools lands differently than the same message scrolling past on a national app.
Local publishers. Maryland is home to a remarkable range of independent publishers: the Deep Creek Times in Garrett County, Jmore in Baltimore, PressBox covering Maryland sports, and dozens more serving individual towns, counties and communities. For outlets like these, a steady state advertising relationship can be the difference between adding a reporter and cutting one. Predictable revenue lets a publisher plan, hire and cover more of the stories their readers want.
Local businesses. When local outlets are healthy, local advertisers have more places to reach their neighbors. Strong local media helps the whole local economy, from the restaurant that relies on a weekend events column to the hardware store that’s advertised in the same paper for decades.
The benefit nobody’s talking about: being found in AI answers
There’s another reason this matters, and it’s one I shared with Maryland tourism directors at a recent presentation.
More people now ask AI tools where to eat, what’s happening this weekend or what a town is like, instead of searching and clicking through a list of links. Those tools build their answers from sources they consider credible, and local news is one of the strongest signals of credibility a community has.
When a town’s local outlet regularly covers its festivals, businesses and attractions, that town has a much better chance of showing up, and being described accurately, when someone asks an AI tool about it. When local coverage disappears, the AI fills the gap with whatever else it can find, which may be outdated, thin or wrong.
That’s why I believe local publishers, tourism offices and chambers of commerce should be working together, not separately. Tourism offices and chambers know what’s worth covering: the new restaurant, the festival lineup, the business that just expanded. Publishers turn it into credible, lasting content that lives on the web. Every one of those stories becomes something an AI tool can find and cite. The result is a community that gets found.
State advertising placed with local outlets supports that same coverage. It’s one more reason the order’s benefits reach well beyond newsrooms.
What the order doesn’t solve on its own
A goal is a starting point. A few things will decide whether it turns into real money for real newsrooms:
- Procurement. State buying rules were written for large vendors. If the Dec. 1 guidance makes it hard to work with small outlets, agencies will default to what they know.
- Eligibility. The Nov. 1 list will define who’s in. Publishers that miss it, or don’t know it exists, will miss out.
- Results. Agencies have to show that their advertising worked. Local outlets need to be ready to show who they reach and how campaigns performed.
- Scale. An agency running a statewide campaign needs a practical way to reach every region at once, not one county at a time.
These are solvable problems, and they’re the problems Maryland Ad Network was built to help solve.
What Maryland publishers should do now
If you’re a Maryland publisher, large or small, don’t wait for the guidance to arrive. Use the next six weeks to get ready:
- Read the eligibility criteria in the order and confirm your outlet meets them.
- Publish your basics. Make sure your ownership, contact information and corrections policy are easy to find on your site.
- Know your audience. Have current numbers ready: monthly readers, newsletter subscribers, social followers and the communities you cover.
- Have a simple media kit. Ad sizes, rates and a short description of your audience go a long way with a busy agency buyer.
- Join Maryland Ad Network at https://localadnetworks.com/state/maryland/ so agencies and advertisers can find you when the guidance arrives.
What agencies and tourism offices should do
If you’re with a state agency, start by looking at where your current advertising runs and how much of it reaches Marylanders through Maryland outlets. That baseline will make the Dec. 1 guidance easier to act on.
If you run a tourism office or a chamber of commerce, talk with your local publishers now. Share your calendar of events and the stories worth telling. The coverage that comes from that relationship helps residents, visitors and AI tools alike.
Making it work
Credit for this belongs to the MDDC Press Association, which led the push for Senate Bill 459, and to its sponsors, Sen. Jim Rosapepe and Del. Linda Foley. They did the hard work of turning an idea into policy.
The next step is making it practical. Maryland’s local news is made up of dozens of small, independent outlets, and most state agencies aren’t set up to work with dozens of small vendors. The Nov. 1 list and the Dec. 1 guidance will decide how much of this goal turns into real dollars for real newsrooms.
At Maryland Ad Network, we’ll be watching that guidance closely and working with publishers across the state to be ready for it. Our goal hasn’t changed since the day we started: help make sure Maryland advertising dollars reach the Maryland newsrooms doing the work.
If you’re a Maryland publisher, join Maryland Ad Network at https://www.marylandadnetwork.com. If you’re with a state agency, a tourism office or a chamber and want to talk through what this means for you, I’d welcome the conversation. Reach me at [email protected].
