Newspapers are vital in this pandemic
Government must offer extra support for a key industry that is more important than ever
Newspapers across the UK have long been suffering from underlying economic ill health. That has left them particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Evening Standard announced that it is to cut salaries and place staff on furlough. The London freesheet City AM has ceased printing for the duration of the crisis.
And Jpimedia, which owns The Scotsman, has had to make some tough decisions on its weekly titles.
The crisis is particularly acute for non-uk titles, where audiences and revenues are naturally smaller.
A survey by the News Media Association (NMA) found that almost half of local publishers fear they will have to cut jobs in the next four weeks unless the government intervenes. That is deeply troubling. Rarely has access to reliable news been more important in saving lives.
The crisis has hit the local press from two directions. It has caused a sharp drop in advertising revenues and it has disrupted distribution. Some 4,000 retail outlets selling newspapers have closed. Readers are confined indoors and unable to get to the shops.
Enders Analysis, a media research firm, estimates that sales from news stands will swiftly halve, creating a shortfall this year of some £110 million across the newspaper industry. That is a shock many local papers will not survive.
That would be a disaster not just for these publications but also for their readers. There is no good time to lose local papers but a pandemic makes them particularly essential. They are at heart a fourth emergency service. They can provide vital information on sudden changes to local services, neighbourhood schemes to help the vulnerable, or outbreaks near by. They can also help to highlight problems with local authority responses, thereby ensuring that resources go to where they are needed. Platforms such as Facebook are neither as reliable nor as accountable as factchecked, independently regulated newspapers. Besides, some readers do not even have internet access. Local papers, moreover, serve an important social purpose, helping to stitch communities closer together.
The government’s offer to pay 80 per cent of the salaries of furloughed workers will help many businesses to weather the storm. But this is no solution for struggling newspapers.
Journalists have been rightly identified as “key workers” during the pandemic. It would be perverse if many were instead to spend it idling at home, having been laid off or placed on paid leave.
One solution may be emergency funds to keep local papers going in the form of grants or interest-free credit. Another may be to extend the 100 per cent business rates holiday, newly applied to leisure and retail services, to local papers.
There can be little justification for keeping tanning shops and estate agents afloat while newspapers fold.
Enders Analysis has suggested the government pay for businesses to advertise in local papers, with the idea of helping both. Indeed the government should direct the bulk of its crisis advertising budget to both national and regional papers in order to inform the public and keep the titles alive. Extra funding for home deliveries, or schemes to combine food deliveries with local paper distribution would also be welcome. If the lockdown is tightened, newspapers must still be allowed to print and be distributed to doorsteps.
There can be no excuse for continuing to ignore the problem. Many MPS, including UK Cabinet ministers, are calling for more support for the newspaper industry. The NMA has written to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, asking him for urgent help. He should supply it.