Bills in New York and California include things like tax credits for employing local journalists and taxes on Meta and Google.

And those attitudes about local information ecosystems may provide insight into solutions for news deserts.

Legacy news outlets are changing revenue models, for-profit outfits are switching to nonprofit and startups are finding opportunities.

Whether or not mainstream ad dollars return to Carlson’s time slot, the cable news business model isn’t likely to change much.

It’s a whole new ballgame when it comes to how Defector staffers will operate their digital media company.