https://zimbabwe.misa.org Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability According to the editor of Zimbabwe’s The Standard, Kholwani Nyathi, “We have had to completely stop printing physical newspapers and instead have moved our content online for both safety and economic reasons.”42 Unlike the Financial Mail, at least some will stay online. 150-year-old local newspaper Grocottt’s Mail now has an e-paper edition that circulates far more widely than the newspaper does. Self-isolation, lockdowns, and working from home all initially pushed more readers of newspapers online, continuing a trend that has been gradual and inexorable until the pandemic. It is too soon to tell how many readers will return to print editions, but the statistics show a remarkable surge in new viewers of news websites in March and April – and for some an increase that has not been entirely reversed as the strict lockdown ended and more workers returned to offices. The biggest gainer has been News24, already the most viewed South African news website. The gain in News24 viewing comes despite it having introduced a freemium paywall on the 8th of August 2020 to encourage subscriptions to its premium output, while commoditized breaking news remains free. In this it follows Arena Holdings, publishers of business publications among others, and the Money Web financial news website, and those in the news industry who maintain that as advertising revenue declines it must be replaced by reader revenue. Table 1: Website audience by Unique Browser South Africa Size Unique Browsers % Difference February March September Mar - Sep Feb - Sept news24.com 5 950 586 12 069 885 11 427 703 -5.3% 92.04% iol.co.za 5 823 122 7 684 965 6 22 819 -19.0% 6.95% timeslive.co.za 5 383 543 7 389 704 5 615 460 -24.0% 4.31% thesouthafrican.com 4 313 191 5 056 594 3 527 961 -30.2% -18.21% businesstech.co.za 3 780 576 5 592 804 5 687 989 1.7% 50.45% [Source: IAB SA, Author’s own calculations] 42. Ilmo Ilkka, “Growing Press Freedom Violations in Africa amid COVID-19,” International Press Institute (blog), April 28, 2020, https://ipi.media/africa-faces-media-freedom-crackdowns-and-existential-threats-to-its- media/. 13