A COVID-era proposal to save journalism
Anya Schiffrin, Hannah Clifford, Allynn McInerney, Kylie Tumiatti, and Léa Allirajah
January 21, 2021
Image: ©Carmel Steindam Graphic Design
“Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-COVID World” by Anya Schiffrin, Director of the Technology, Media, and Communication Specialization at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and MTD Centre Advisory Board Member, examines global initiatives to address the financial problems devastating journalism.
The report, co-authored with Columbia University students Hannah Clifford, Allynn McInerney, Kylie Tumiatti and Léa Allirajah, divides proposals to help journalism into four categories:
public subsidies,
tech platforms taxes,
new business models, and
private funding.
Demand for accurate reliable news rose markedly in 2020 in response to the global spread of COVID-19. But at the same time, many more journalists were let go and newsroom revenues continued to shrink as the power imbalance between publishers and platforms widened. These issues existed before the pandemic, but what is clear now, according to the report, is that the economic impacts of COVID-19 have helped spur what some are calling a “media extinction event.”
Systemic change is urgently needed to change this course and dozens of plans to help save journalism have emerged since the pandemic decimated media outlets around the world. This report examines and summarizes global initiatives to address the financial problems devastating journalism.
“Most promising are Australia’s efforts to get Google and Facebook to pay for news and legislative proposals in the US to pass laws and get investment that would support local news,” they write in a summary for Columbia Journalism Review.
While philanthropic support has helped reliable journalism survive, it is not enough on its own. Highlighting efforts from France, Canada, and Norway, the report points to donor coordination, new laws, and government subsidizing existing outlets in need as promising—and exciting—possible solutions to support a pluralistic media ecosystem.
“If these newspapers close, that’s the end of independent newspapers. If the outlets are not saved, what will then happen to independent media? To freedom of expression? The government could be the only print player left.”
—Ntibinyane Ntibinyane, Journalist, Botswana
The report looks at proposed legislation in the US, plans for digital transition in Africa, what European governments have done to help journalism in 2020, detailed lessons from Canada, and written a large section on the Australian competition authority's efforts to get Google and Facebook to pay for news in Australia.
Among the examined proposals is A Replanting Strategy: Saving Local Newspapers Squeezed by Hedge Funds, launched in October 2020 by Steve Waldman, co-founder of Reporter for America. This ambitious replanting strategy outlines a way to rescue 6,700 local newspapers that are owned by hedge funds. Waldman notes that a future bill could “provide incentives for chains to donate newspapers to the communities they serve instead of closing them, while tightening antitrust law to discourage excessive consolidation.”
Beyond individual grant making, there is a growing recognition of the need for something like a Marshall Plan for journalism.
Another initiative comes from Farai Chideya of the Ford Foundation, who released a report imploring the need to invest in U.S. news organizations led by people who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color. “Racial justice is top of mind for philanthropists, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020,” the report’s authors write. “The Reconstructing American News project recommends providing grants to people representing marginalized communities and making the grant application process more accessible.” Ford plans to spend $20 million in grantmaking efforts to support journalism in 2020, up from its previous $15 million per year.
“We wanted to help both for- and non-profit funders understand the transformative power and immense urgency of funding media by/for underrepresented communities— people of color especially, but also those with disabilities and rural whites.” —Farai Chideya, Ford Foundation
This report is a critical assessment of our options to support journalism’s financial sustainability, and therefore its vital role in a healthy democracy.
