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Peretti broke the news in a memo Wednesday, saying salaries will be slashed in April and May on a sliding scale based on salary. In its bid to avoid layoffs, BuzzFeed is cutting staffersвЂ™ pay by as much as 25 percent while Chief Executive Jonah Peretti will forgo pay as long as the coronavirus racks the economy. Cable news networks surged by 73 percent, compared with the same week in 2019, while the big four broadcast networks increased nearly 19 percent versus that same week a year ago.Д«ut while the interest in coronavirus news is boosting some digital subscriptions, вЂњit is nowhere near matching the advertising pullback,вЂќ Chavern said.

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The ad shrinkage comes as the coronavirus pandemic boosts the news business in terms of overall eyeballs.ДЄccording to Comscore, in-home data usage was up 38 percent in the March 15-17 period, compared with the same weekend a year ago, and national TV viewership surged. Ken Harding, a senior managing partner of FTI Consulting, thinks it may be a long downward trend: вЂњPrint advertising will likely see a more detrimental impact from reduced advertising spend in the next 18 months.вЂќ

вЂњThe SBAвЂ™s definition of a small business in the newspaper industry is under 1,000 employees, and most newspapers are under that figure,вЂќ said David Chavern, head of the News Media Alliance, a trade association. But small papers are eligible to apply for general small-business funds. Unlike Canada, which contained a specific carve-out for local media, there is no such funding in the US stimulus package. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica said they were hiring four new hires for a joint reporting team.ДЄnd Steve Waldman of Report for America is urging the government to dramatically increase spending on local public health advertising: вЂњAs the bottom is falling out for local news organizations now - at the worst possible moment - the government can do something to help.вЂќ

Aside from the potential government bailout, Twitter has agreed to donate $1 million to journalism nonprofits. вЂњLocal media is risking it all on the front line of the COVID-19 ,вЂќ said the Save Journalism Project. The cuts come as demand for coronavirus news skyrockets - a job that requires many reporters to continue to venture outside to do reporting. Voice Media, which has weeklies in Phoenix, Denver, Houston and Miami, cut staff salaries by 25 percent and executive salaries by 35 percent. In Pittsburgh, the 175-year-old Pittsburgh Catholic weekly shut down. The Austin Chronicle is moving from a weekly publication to one that publishes every other week, while the Portland Mercury in Oregon and The Stranger in Seattle suspended their print editions and laid off dozens of staffers. The Washingtonian stopped using freelancers, laid off all its fellows and instituted a 10 percent pay cut for surviving staffers. News advertising has plummeted between 20 and 30 percent in the past two weeks compared to a year ago, according to the International News Media Association. The reeling US newspaper industry will be eligible to tap a portion of the $2 trillion stimulus package that contains $349 billion earmarked for small businesses.Д«ut the potential rescue package comes too late to help dozens of newsrooms that have been slashing jobs as shuttered local businesses stop advertising.

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