The Latest: Publishers adapt news products and paywall strategies in response to COVID-19 (Mar. 16, 2020)
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THE NEWS
The COVID-19 pandemic will potentially impact the news business in four ways, according to Joshua Benton: event cancellations, home delivery disruptions, advertising declines (particularly as social gatherings are banned and coronavirus is added to keyword block lists), and recession risk.
SO WHAT
Amidst these potential difficulties, publishers are taking action by releasing new editorial products and adapting their paywall strategies.
New editorial products
Publishers have responded to the rapidly changing nature of the pandemic with live blogs, newsletters and podcasts, many of which are listed in this Nieman Lab piece. CNN’s coronavirus podcast, for example, “hit 1 million downloads a week after launch,” and has consistently ranked in the top five on Apple Podcasts since.
Un-paywalling
Publisher decisions on paywalls run the full gamut of possible responses, from keeping walls up to un-paywalling all coverage. As a Los Angeles Times spokesperson explained, each is “strik[ing] a balance between providing a public service…and placing a value on [their] news products.”
Some publishers with hard paywalls, like The Information and The Times of London, have not adjusted their paywalls, while many local papers — including The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tampa Bay Times, The Toronto Star, and The Seattle Times — have unpaywalled coverage to some degree. The type of coverage being unwalled varies, from only local coverage (as in the case of The Seattle Times) to “Need-to-Know” landing pages (like The Wall Street Journal). Others are boosting newsletter subscribers and registered users, such as The Washington Post, which has unpaywalled all coverage featured in its special Coronavirus newsletter, and The New York Times, which is providing unlimited access to COVID-19 coverage to registered users.
Even after un-paywalling coverage, publications are seeing a marked boost in readership and subscriptions. Poynter reported that subscriptions at The Seattle Times have set new records, even though coverage is free, and that readership is “way up.” Coronavirus coverage at Tampa Bay Times made up about half of the stories leading people to subscribe. Publishers are also counting on the longer-term impact, particularly with regards to building brand affinity. As Poynter’s Rick Edmonds put it, “If potential subscribers like what they see, they may be more inclined to sign up when the wall returns.”
LOOK FOR
What this means for local journalism. Margaret Sullivan argues that this crisis makes the impact of cuts to local newsrooms even clearer. Michele Matassa Flores from The Seattle Times said that the pandemic “is proving the worth of local journalism … more than anything [she] can remember in a 35-year career.”
If, and how, newsrooms collaborate. Dan Gillmor argued that “in a time of dwindling resources for journalism overall, [newsrooms’ duplication of effort] is insane — and a vast disservice to the public.” Editors from cities across the country, including Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle, are discussing coverage decisions via video calls and email chains to a significantly higher degree than before. In Oregon, several publishers including OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting, are co-publishing stories on the virus “in order to get the best information out to the most Oregonians.” Stefanie Murray combined a full list of collaborative initiatives in a piece for Nieman Lab.
