NEW YORK: Just when Americans need it most, a US newspaper industry already under stress is facing an unprecedented new challenge.
Readers desperate for information are more reliant than ever on local media as the coronavirus spreads across the US They want to know about cases in their area, where testing centers are, what the economic impact is. Papers say online traffic and subscriptions have risen — the latter even when they’ve lowered paywalls for pandemic-related stories.
But newspapers and other publications are under pressure as advertising craters. They are cutting jobs, staff hours and pay, dropping print editions — and in some cases shutting down entirely.
Circulation and web traffic are up at the Sun Chronicle, a daily in Attleboro, Massachusetts, as it scrambles to cover the coronavirus pandemic. It’s “all we do,” said Craig Borges, executive editor and general manager. But with many local restaurants, gyms, colleges and other businesses closed, the paper has laid off a handful of sales and mailroom employees and a political reporter. It has about a dozen newsroom employees left.
“Hopefully we can work this out and make it through,” Borges said.
Researchers have long worried that the next recession — which economists say is already upon us — “could be an extinction-level event for newspapers,” said Penelope Abernathy, a University of North Carolina professor who studies the news industry.
More than 2,100 cities and towns have lost a paper in the past 15 years, mostly weeklies, and newsroom employment has shrunk by half since 2004. Many publications struggled as consumers turned to the Internet for news, battered by the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the rise of giants like Google and Facebook that dominated the market for digital ads.
More recently, big national newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have diversified revenue by adding millions of digital subscribers. Many others, however, remain heavily dependent on advertising.
Twenty global news publishers recently surveyed by the International News Media Association expect a median 23% decline in 2020 ad sales. In the US, newspaper ad revenues have dropped 20% to 30% in the last few weeks compared with a year ago, FTI Consulting’s Ken Harding wrote in another INMA report.
On Monday, the largest US newspaper chain, Gannett, announced 15-day furloughs and pay cuts for many employees. On Tuesday, another major chain, Lee Enterprises, also announced salary reductions and furloughs. The Tampa Bay Times, owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute, cut five days of its print edition and announced furloughs for non-newsroom staff.
Further down the food chain, many smaller publishers — particularly local alt-weeklies with a heavy focus on dining, arts and entertainment — are making even harder decisions.
In rural Nevada, Battle Born Media is scaling back or ceasing publication of six rural weekly newspapers. The Reno News & Review, an alternative weekly, suspended operations and laid off all staffers. C&G Newspapers, which publishes 19 weekly newspapers near Detroit, suspended print publication. Alternative paper Pittsburgh Current went online-only.
Report for America, which subsidizes journalists in local newsrooms and at The Associated Press, says some of its local-media partners report such deteriorating finances that they may not be able to pay their half of these reporters’ salaries.
In suburban St. Louis last week, businesses were calling and canceling ads as fast as editor Don Corrigan and his staff could write articles to fill the empty space left behind. A local hospital wanted to run a full-page ad offering tips to fight the virus in the three community weeklies he runs — but wanted it for free. A softhearted Corrigan agreed.
He announced this week that the Webster-Kirkwood Times, South County Time and West End World will stop publishing, although he’s keeping the website running. “I don’t think people realize how much it costs to put out a newspaper,” he said, noting that some readers are belatedly suggesting a GoFundMe page or a paywall for the web site.
A $2.2 trillion relief act signed Friday by President Donald Trump could provide loans or grants to smaller local publishers who maintain their payrolls. Industry executives are also discussing future government bailout requests that would preserve the independence of news organizations, two newspaper-industry trade groups wrote in a Monday letter to Trump and congressional leaders.
One proposal under discussion would recommend creating a federal fund to pay for government newspaper ads that offer health advice. Another possibility might be to offer people tax credits for subscriptions.
The Shepherd Express newspaper, which took its name from an Allen Ginsberg poem, has for 38 years told residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about up-and-coming musicians, hot restaurants, crooked politicians and where to find hemp-related products. Last week, it suspended publication and laid off staff.
Editor, publisher and owner Louis Fortis is keeping the website operating and promises to resume printing at some point, in some form. Yet he’s feeling the same uncertainty as millions of other Americans. “I’m very disappointed,” he said. “On the other hand, you have to look at the big picture. People are dying.”
Local newspapers are facing their own coronavirus crisis
https://arab.news/5m2t2
Local newspapers are facing their own coronavirus crisis
- More than 2,100 cities and towns have lost a paper in the past 15 years, mostly weeklies, and newsroom employment has shrunk by half since 2004
Palestinian writer wins Pulitzer Prize for Gaza war commentary
- Mosab Abu Toha was awarded the $15,000 award for four of his essays published in The New Yorker
DUBAI: Renowned Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha won the Pulitzer Prize in commentary for his published essays documenting the suffering of people in Gaza.
Abu Toha was awarded the $15,000 award for four of his essays published in The New Yorker “on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel,” the Pulitzer board said.
Announcing his win, Abu Toha wrote on X: “Let it bring hope. Let it be a tale.”
The writer, who was born in a refugee camp in Gaza City, lost 31 family members in an airstrike on their home on Oct. 28, 2023 amid the war in Gaza.
He was detained by Israeli forces in November 2023 while trying to flee his home in northern Gaza, where he lived most of his life and was wounded aged 16 by an Israeli airstrike.
Abu Toha, along with his wife and three children, are now based in the US, where he received a Harvard fellowship for scholars at risk in 2019.
In a tribute post on Tuesday following his Pulitzer prize win, Abu Toha wrote on X: “Blessings to the 31 members of my family who were killed in one airstrike in 2023.
“Blessings to the soul of my great aunt, Fatima, whose ‘corpse’ remains under the rubble of her house since October 2024. Blessings to the graves of my grandparents who I will never find.”
Israeli soldiers raid home of Palestinian activist featured in Louis Theroux documentary
- Issa Amro posted videos on social media showing confrontations with Israeli soldiers, settlers at his home in Hebron
- The activist said ‘they wanted revenge from me for participating in the BBC documentary’
LONDON: Israeli soldiers have raided the home of Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian activist featured in Louis Theroux’s recent BBC documentary “The Settlers,” in what he described as a retaliatory move for his appearance in the film.
Amro, co-founder of the non-violent group Youth Against Settlements, posted videos on social media showing confrontations with Israeli soldiers at his home in Hebron, as well as footage of Israeli settlers entering the property.
“The soldiers raided my house today, they wanted revenge from me for participating in the BBC documentary ‘the settlers’, after the army left the settlers raided my house, they injured one activist and cut the tree, they stole tools and the garbage containers,” he said in a post on X.
The incident comes as Israel intensifies its military operations in the West Bank, even as global attention remains focused on its war in Gaza. Human rights groups have long accused Israeli settlers — often accompanied or protected by soldiers — of conducting near-daily raids on Palestinian communities to intimidate residents and seize land.
The soldiers raided my house today, they wanted to revenge from me for participating in the @BBC documentary “ the settlers” , after the army left the settlers raided my house, they injured one activist and cut the tree, they stole tools and the garbage containers.
— Issa Amro عيسى عمرو (@Issaamro) May 3, 2025
The Israeli… pic.twitter.com/jYYYlr2XyS
Despite repeated condemnation by the international community, attacks by settlers and security forces have grown more frequent and more violent, forcing many Palestinians to abandon their homes.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law. The expansion of settlements has drawn comparisons from rights organizations to the apartheid system once seen in South Africa.
Amro, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, appeared in “The Settlers,” a follow-up to Theroux’s 2012 documentary “The Ultra Zionists.” In the new film, he guides Theroux through Israeli-occupied Hebron, where around 700 settlers live under heavy military protection among a Palestinian population of roughly 35,000.
The documentary not only examines the daily realities of life under occupation but also explores the religious and ideological motivations driving the settler movement.
Amro said Israeli police threatened him with arrest and told him not to file a complaint. In one video posted on X, he confronts balaclava-wearing soldiers and asks why their faces are covered. One responds: “You know exactly why.”
. @Issaamro who featured in The Settlers has posted videos of his latest harassment by settlers and soldiers. Our team has been in regular contact with him since the documentary and over the last 24 hours. We are continuing to monitor the situation. https://t.co/asEWKkVX5h
— Louis Theroux (@louistheroux) May 4, 2025
Theroux commented on X that his team is in regular contact with Amro and is “continuing to monitor the situation.”
The incident echoes a similar case in March, when Hamdan Ballal, a co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” was assaulted outside his home in Susya, a village in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, before being briefly detained. Ballal later claimed he was beaten while in custody and described the attack as “revenge for our movie.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces denied Amro’s claims, saying: “As the videos clearly show, the soldiers present on May 3 in the Hebron area were there to disperse the confrontation between Palestinian residents and Israeli civilians.”
Syria state TV relaunches, months after Assad’s ouster
- Following Assad’s fall, television channels, radio stations and outlets suspended broadcasting and publishing
- ‘We hope to rebuild national media and trust with Syrians,’ Information Minister Hamza Al-Mustafa said
DAMASCUS: Syrian state television officially relaunched on Monday with a trial broadcast almost five months after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar Assad and following delays blamed on sanctions and dilapidated equipment.
After Syria’s new authorities took power in December, state media and other television channels, radio stations and outlets affiliated with Assad’s government suspended broadcasting and publishing.
At 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Monday, a presenter appeared on television screens, welcoming viewers and announcing the start of a test broadcast of Syria’s Alekhbariah television channel from Damascus via two satellite providers.
The channel showcased its new branding and broadcast images of Damascus and Ummayad Square, where the Public Authority for Radio and Television headquarters are located, as well as images of correspondents across the country.
“Today, the first official television channel has launched,” said new authority chief Alaa Bersilo, vowing it would be “a mediator between the state and society.”
He said broadcasting was delayed several times “due to television infrastructure” and “sanctions on the former regime which impacted satellite broadcast efforts.”
The channel’s director Jamil Srur said: “We were keen on Alekhbariah being fit for the new Syria, and this is what delayed its launch.”
In a post on X, Information Minister Hamza Al-Mustafa called the launch “a very emotional moment,” expressing hope that the channel would be help rebuild the national media and be a model for “rebuilding trust” with Syrians.
After forces led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) took Damascus on December 8 and announced Assad’s overthrow, state news agency SANA stopped operating for more than a day before resuming with new staff.
But state television failed to keep up with fast-evolving events, at first broadcasting archive footage and later ceasing transmissions.
The new authorities have cracked down on outlets that were close to the ousted government, particularly Al-Watan daily and Sham FM radio.
For decades, Syria’s ruling Baath party and the Assad family dynasty heavily curtailed all aspects of daily life, including freedom of the press and expression, while the media became a tool of those in power and the entry of foreign media was heavily restricted.
Since Assad’s fall, outlets in exile or in formerly opposition areas have come to prominence, and foreign journalists have flooded in.
Syria ranks 177 out of 180 countries and territories on the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
While Assad’s ouster ended “five decades of brutal and violent repression of the press... journalists’ newfound freedom remains fragile due to ongoing political instability and mounting economic pressures,” according to RSF.
Google has launched new film and TV production wing, Business Insider reports
- Move could help it capitalize on an industry reeling from rising production costs and potential US tariffs
- Google is looking to boost the visibility and adoption of its newer offerings including AI and spatial computing tools
LONDON: Google has launched a new film and TV production initiative to scout projects it could fund or co-produce, Business Insider reported, a move that could help it capitalize on an industry reeling from rising production costs and potential US tariffs.
The initiative, called “100 Zeros,” is a multi-year partnership with Range Media Partners, a talent firm and production company known for its work on films including “A Complete Unknown” and “Longlegs,” according to the report on Monday.
Alphabet-owned Google is looking to boost the visibility and adoption of its newer offerings including AI and spatial computing tools that blend the physical and virtual worlds through the initiative, which backed the marketing of indie horror film “Cuckoo” last year, the report said.
100 Zeros is among the producers for “Cuckoo,” according to entertainment-focused social platform Letterboxd.
Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The reported move comes as Hollywood grapples with higher costs after twin strikes in 2023 by actors and writers, as well as the threat of US tariffs on foreign-made films.
Google already has a partnership with Range Media — it announced last month the companies would work together over the next 18 months to commission films about AI. The first two films from the venture — called “Sweetwater” and “LUCID” — are set to release later this year.
Using Hollywood’s cultural clout could also help the tech giant in the AI race as it rushes to drive up adoption of its services such as Gemini, which competes with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The company, however, is not looking at YouTube as a primary distribution platform for 100 Zeros’ work, Business Insider reported, adding the goal instead was to sell projects to traditional studios and streamers such as Netflix.
YouTube had ventured into original programming in 2016 with the launch of “YouTube Originals.” The project was shuttered in 2022 as it pivoted back to its core focus on user-generated videos and ramped up its TikTok-style short-form offering, Shorts.
New York Times wins 4 Pulitzers, New Yorker 3; Washington Post wins for coverage of Trump shooting
- The Pulitzers honored the best in journalism from 2024 in 15 categories, along with eight arts categories including books, music and theater
NEW YORK: The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and the New Yorker three on Monday for journalism in 2024 that touched on topics like the fentanyl crisis, the US military and last summer’s assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
The Pulitzers’ prestigious public service medal went to ProPublica for the second straight year. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz were honored for reporting on pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgent care in states with strict abortion laws.
The Washington Post won for “urgent and illuminating” breaking news coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. The Pultizers honored Ann Telnaes, who quit the Post in January after the news outlet refused to run her editorial cartoon lampooning tech chiefs — including Post owner Jeff Bezos — cozying up to Trump.
The Pulitzers honored the best in journalism from 2024 in 15 categories, along with eight arts categories including books, music and theater. The public service winner receives a gold medal. All other winners receive $15,000.
The Times’ Azam Ahmed and Christina Goldbaum and contributing writer Matthieu Aikins won an explanatory reporting prize for examining US policy failures in Afghanistan. The newspaper’s Doug Mills won in breaking news photography for his images of the assassination attempt. Declan Walsh and the Times’ staff won for an investigation into the Sudan conflict. Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher won in local reporting, an award shared by the Times and The Baltimore Banner, for reporting on that city’s fentanyl crisis.
The New Yorker’s Mosab Abu Toha won for his commentaries on Gaza. The magazine also won for its “In the Dark” podcast about the killing of Iraqi civilians by the US military and in feature photography for Moises Saman’s pictures of the Sednaya prison in Syria.
