Share

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted the journalism industry and affected journalists’ work. Many local newspapers have been severely affected by losses in advertising revenues from coronavirus; journalists have been laid off, and some publications have folded. Many newspapers with paywalls lowered them for some or all of their coronavirus coverage. Journalists have worked to produce coverage of the pandemic combating misinformation, providing public health updates, and supplying entertainment to help people cope with the virus’s impact.

On 5 May, Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease and desist order against country’s largest media company, ABS-CBN TV network, forcing it to suspend operations for all of its physical broadcasting channels. There are allegations that the NTC refusal over the renewal of the franchise was based on the network’s critical news coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. ABS-CBN said in a statement: “Millions of Filipinos will lose their source of news and entertainment when ABS-CBN is ordered to go off-air on TV and radio tonight.

In Canada, a number of permanent layoffs and the closure of newspapers have been attributed to the pandemic.In Atlantic Canada, production was suspended on all weekly publications owned by SaltWire Network, for a 3-month period. Only its four dailies (The Chronicle Herald, Cape Breton Post, The Guardian, and The Telegram) were kept in production. Postmedia ended the publication of the Manitoba newspapers Altona Red River Valley Echo, Carman Valley Leader, Gimli’s Interlake Spectator, Morden Times, Selkirk Journal, Stonewall Argus & Teulon Times, Winkler Times, and The Prairie Farmer. In Ontario, they closed the newspapers Kingsville Reporter, Windsor-Essex’s Lakeshore News, LaSalle Post, Tecumseh Shoreline Week, and Tilbury Times. Further, The Napanee Guide and Paris Star have ceased their print editions, and are now online-only.

Torstar brand Metroland Media has ceased the print editions of the Beach-East York Neighbourhood Voice, Bloor West-Parkdale Neighbourhood Voice, and York-City Centre Neighbourhood Voice newspapers. The Bolton offices of The Caledon Enterprise were closed, with staff moving into the Brampton Guardian and Mississauga News shared newsroom in Mississauga. In Quebec, CN2i reduced their six daily newspapers to Saturday editions as of March. The move resulted in 143 temporary layoffs.Sing Tao Daily Toronto, owned by Torstar, is ending its weekly free print edition. Canadian Jewish News is closed its operations after 60 years. Winnipeg’s The Jewish News and Post, established in 1925, became an online-only publication.

As of 4 May 2020, almost 100 journalists had tested positive for COVID-19 in India. Fifteen employees of the Jai Maharashtra news network had the virus, as did nineteen employees of the Punjab Kesari newspaper.Many media organisations have reported slumps in advertising revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, said the pandemic had caused the “biggest existential crisis” in the history of the press, as local and national newspapers experienced circulation decline.

On 20 March 2020, the London business newspaper City A.M. suspended its print edition and announced it would halve its staff pay in April. Independent Digital News and Media, the owner of The Independent and indy100 news websites, furloughed some of its staff and cut wages for employees. BuzzFeed announced it was ending its news operations in the UK, as well as in Australia, partly due to a slump in advertising revenue due to the pandemic. Its ten news staff in the UK were furloughed in the cutback.The newspaper group Reach plc, which owns titles including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, reported a 30% fall in its revenues for April 2020.

The scale of the COVID-19 outbreak has prompted several major publishers to temporarily disable their paywalls on related articles, including Bloomberg News, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Seattle Times. Many local newspapers were already severely struggling before the crisis. Several alt weekly newspapers in affected metropolitan areas, including The Stranger in Seattle and Austin Chronicle, have announced layoffs and funding drives due to lost revenue. Advertisements concerning public events and venues accounted for a majority of revenue for alt-weekly newspapers, which was disrupted by the cancellation of large public gatherings.