Traditional News Media Were Already Ill. COVID-19 Is Killing Some
Report finds 48 community newspapers have closed and 100 have made cuts as pandemic hits ad revenue.
Local reporting is being kneecapped by pandemic-driven cuts to media outlets across B.C. at a time when community-specific, trustworthy reporting is vital to public health.
A project to map the impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian media paints a bleak picture of communities in Canada hurtling towards news poverty in the midst of a pandemic.
The project, which involves J-Source, the Local News Research Project at Ryerson University and the Canadian Association of Journalists, found 2,053 editorial and non-editorial staff have been laid off by media across Canada in the last six weeks. More than 100 outlets have been affected, with 48 community newspapers closing.
And experts say it is difficult to see how the already struggling industry could fully recover from such a blow.
In B.C., at least four media outlets have closed temporarily or permanently, and nine have cancelled some or all print editions or cut back on broadcasts.
Journalists at 16 publications in the province have been laid off and 14 outlets have cut or reduced hours for their reporters.
These include Glacier Media-owned community newspapers in the northern hubs of Dawson Creek, Prince George and Fort St. John, and Black Press Media-owned community papers across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
The pandemic-related cuts are only the latest blow, April Lindgren of the Local News Research Project told J-Source.
“To put the damage to the community newspaper sector in perspective, we know from the Local News Map that 215 community papers have been shut down in the last 12 years,” she said.
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