As is the case with many industries, local news outlets have seen massive profit losses because of COVID-19 with no decrease in expenses.
Many local newsrooms across the nation are facing pay cuts, furloughs and closures. As a result, these news organizations are receiving bipartisan support to receive federal assistance.
On Monday, more than 240 House members signed a letter to President Trump, urging him to direct federal spending to ads in local media and to encourage businesses that receive stimulus funds to spend a portion of that money on the same.
News organizations were already struggling before 2020 began, but since the pandemic started, over 33,000 American journalists have been adversely affected.
The Poynter Institute conducted interviews with journalism organization leaders, analysts and scholars to get an idea of what direction journalism is heading as an industry.
Their main findings were that print media has accelerated its transition to digital media, ad revenue is being replaced with paid content and news deserts are spreading across the country.
A survey from the International News Media Association conducted in mid-March found that as many as 62% of news publishers experienced a decline in advertising revenue, according to the News Media Alliance. The New York Times estimates 33,000 employees of U.S. media companies have been furloughed, laid off or seen their pay reduced since the virus arrived on U.S. shores.
Americans, however, are turning more to local news for information about coronavirus, including the number of cases in their cities and states, stay-at-home orders and testing sites. Comscore, a site that measures online traffic, found that visits to local news sites shot up 89% in March.
