Viability, diversity, stability and safety are essential ingredients of any healthy information ecosystem. How many media worldwide can say yes to all four? As we mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, media across the globe are fighting threats both existential and immediate. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges familiar to media owners, editors and journalists everywhere. The dilemma for an industry shrinking by the day and fast running out of money is that the biggest, most unavoidable cost is the journalism that defines it. Covid-19 has forced questions around the economic model and financing for the media front and centre, into the view of everyone with even just a passing interest in how news is produced. Many of the difficult questions facing the industry are underpinned by an inability to predict an economic model that will guarantee a future for quality, professional journalism. Digital ad revenue failed a long time ago to make up anywhere near the shortfall from traditional advertising sources. (The irony, during this global pandemic, is that the media have generally seen online traffic soar, yet revenues continue to plummet.) Experiments with paywalls, subscription models, and shifts away from traditional news products have produced notable localised successes but are no one-size-fits-all panacea. In developing markets, across countries where press freedom is threatened, or where huge disadvantages in skills and resources were already acute, the coronavirus-catalysed survival fight comes at a moment when many media organisations are already on their knees. Added to this, of course, are the new digital frontiers where media continue to struggle to assert themselves. The ever-growing cacophony of social media channels has led to media, which previously dominated in the physical world, jostling now for a position in the digital society. Contributing significantly to this decline in prestige is a pervasive, algorithmically confirmed bias that favours social discord, feeds off polarisation, and services corporate profit. The phenomenon slowly revealed itself during the latter half of the previous decade and showed media that the deck is very much stacked against them, regardless of the quality, accuracy or trustworthiness of their content. The harsh reality: public-interest reporting simply does not convert to advertising dollars – or at least not nearly enough of them to bet the house on. Amazon writes its own TV news segments to laud virus response The idea that the dominant tech companies are both part of the problem and an essential ingredient in a solution is unavoidable. They remain in an immense position of relatively unchecked authority to determine the success – or failure – of the news industry. Journalists continue to be physically attacked and threatened. The pandemic has provided no respite, with over 600 coronavirus-related violations of press freedom documented to date, including physical and verbal attacks. The drastic social measures taken by governments around the world have been exploited, by those already averse to a free media, as an opportunity to stifle freedom of expression, restrict access to information, and undermine critical reporting. It is essential to understand the extent to which media are able to produce independent, high-quality content, considering not just the economics, but also sociopolitical and technological factors that reflect the health of the overall media landscape and its place in the information ecosystem. Pandemic a reminder of need for reliable, sustainable media The pandemic has introduced an urgency to the need for holistic solutions to these issues that, for too long, have chipped away at the media’s role in our societies. There are serious efforts to find an appropriate response in these critical moments, so that mistakes are not repeated. On the global level, WAN-IFRA’s work with Unesco and partners aims to produce accurate research into the extent of the crisis, share best practices and knowledge of the responses to date, and formulate policy recommendations aimed at governments, investors and the media industry itself. Our engagement with the Independent News Emergency Relief Coordination looks to track investment in the news industry as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, with an eye to the longer-term structural challenges that have brought the old business model to its current state. WAN-IFRA’s World Press Trends report, as well as research among members to document relief efforts, government subsidies, private capital investments and policy changes, also gives an indication of the scale of the damage and the areas to prioritise as the industry rebuilds. And responding to the need for a holistic approach, our work in media freedom aims to tackle the challenges related to viability, diversity, stability and safety. For over 70 years, WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers) has put into practice the belief that business strength and the freedom to publish are symbiotic in a healthy, democratic society. Today, through an average annual investment of €3 million (US$3.6 million) of public funding from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, our work extends beyond support in achieving business best practice and editorial professionalism to prioritising gender equality through our Women in News programme and addressing safety, digital security, mental health and well-being concerns – all equally paramount to levelling the playing field and providing the best conditions for long-term success. Bold choices therefore lie before us; big decisions that will define and shape the next generation of news media. But there will be no solution to any of this without a systemic reset or conceptually radical break from the old ways of thinking and doing – otherwise a viable media industry confirming its place within a healthy information ecosystem remains a fantasy. Andrew Heslop is executive director of press freedom at WAN-IFRA