Journalists may be one of the Governments designated key workers so it is ironic that the biggest threat to their career choice comes at a time when there is a heightened interest in the news.
Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, there were several ominous trends in the newspaper industry with declining sales but now they are not only facing print copies being returned unsold as customers stay at home but also a sharp decrease in advertisers as businesses and events shut down due to quarantines and significantly cut back or stop their newspaper advertising.
National newspaper sales fell over a fifth between the middle and end of March according to the Financial Times.
Many of the UK’s biggest print media groups have announced emergency measures with some local newspapers suspending issues and the Daily Mirror, Express and Star cutting pay and putting staff on leave.
The Financial Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Metro, Evening Standard and Mail Online is asking staff to take pay cuts and some are considering becoming digital-only models, following in the footsteps of the Independent which stopped producing a physical newspaper.
Those companies who are still advertising have refused to allow their brands from appearing alongside articles about Coronavirus and as anyone who has picked up a newspaper recently can tell you, that's pretty much the only story in town at the moment.
Even Britain's top selling newspaper, the Sun, has been begging people to buy its rag again which it points out, costs less than a cup of coffee although the self-description of it 'providing a lifeline of trusted information for millions' is pushing it a bit, especially as has a £68m hole in it's accounts for it's previous hacking indiscretions.
To show solidarity with my fellow journalists i say buy a newspaper, just make it a decent one but if you get to the newsagents and the only one on the shelf is The Sun, enjoy your coffee and watch the BBC instead.
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