Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability https://zimbabwe.misa.org African countries too. This is confirmed by the interviews for Botswana,27 and Namibia, where, according to Namibian Media Trust director Zoe Titus, “… with Covid, for the first two months, I think revenues dropped by about 70% in terms of advertising.”28 Some organisations in Zimbabwe reported revenues down 50% to 80%. In Malawi and Zambia revenue reportedly fell by 50% to 80%.29 The evidence is that the devastating impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the news media represents the tipping point of a process that has been gradual. “The ongoing, coronavirus-fueled media crisis has in fact been in the works for more than 30 years. It is not a new phenomenon.”31 An assessment in the interim study for the South African National Editors Forum was that news organizations were already on the edge, such as the magazine divisions that were the first to be closed, were tipped over by the Covid-19 crisis – yet all news operations that relied on advertising and revenue from print product sales were affected, revealing an over-reliance on advertising as a source of revenue. 32 This assessment of what the Covid-19 crisis has done to print media houses is summed up by Kalinaki:33 Across the world media advertising revenue fell sharply during the first and especially the second quarter of 2020, but the question is how much of it is coming back. Daniel Kalinaki, GM editorial, Nation Media Group Uganda Daniel is pessimistic. “Now in 2008 at the financial crisis we saw advertising revenues dropping by about 25 percent but then they bounced back at the end of the crisis when there was a return to normalcy. What we’re seeing now with Covid is a reduction of between 40% and 50 %, revenues that will not come back. So in some places there was a drop 80% to 90% but all the research that I’ve looked at the most optimistic view is that 40% to 50% of the advertising revenue will actually not come back, certainly not to print, and increasingly even the other legacy media platforms like television and radio will see reductions. That’s partly because of the economic impact as advertisers keep their powder dry, it will also be as a result of the disruptive impact of new ways of reaching people, which is social media, and which is new media.”30 What Covid has done is it has basically truncated a 20-year slow decline into a six-month shovethe -industry-off-the cliff moment. The downside is that many media houses are going to I think disappear, especially big legacy media houses that have large overheads that can’t react very quickly and the upside is that it now forces conversations that have been happening in media houses for decades and they go from something that you also discuss in terms of the digital strategy, in terms of monetization, to something that you actually have to do in order to be around by Christmas this year, Christmas next year. In other countries in the region, on the other hand, a lack of advertising means reliance on copy sales, and, “For 48 days, almost all 27. Joel Konopo, “Botswana’s Media Is in Crisis - The Mail & Guardian,” Mail & Guardian, January 29, 2020, https://mg.co.za/ article/2020-01-29-botswanas-media-is-in-crisis/. 28. Zoe Titus, Interview on Covid-19 impact on news media in Southern Africa, September 16, 2020. 29. Teldah Mawarire, Internews Effect of Covid-19 on news media, September 23, 2020. 30. Media Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa Webinar, Webinar, 2020, 31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40vZNq_utmI&t=3815s. 32. Rumney, “SANEF’S COVID 19 Impact on Journalism Report (Interim),” 5. 33. Media Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa Webinar. 10