Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability https://zimbabwe.misa.org the inversion Prof Harber refers to is that donor funding is regarded as fickle and often having strings attached. One way of avoiding this diversifying revenue streams, as Daily Maverick aims to do, or the amaBhungane approach of limiting funding from any one donor, and by reaching out to the public. Nonetheless, the question must be asked about the limits of the nonprofit model for funding, not the investigative journalism that for-profits find difficult to afford, but the ordinary coverage of public and private life that has been the mainstay of newspapers, not grand corruption but “politics, prices and princes”; court reporting, local government and governance, crime, finance and inflation. And while donors have come forth to put money forward for journalism, the demands of society in general in the time of Covid-19 economic upheaval are enormous. “I think the world is open now for a bit more of a social democratic approach to media development and maintenance of what exists. The problem with state support, however, is that you are only going to be looking at fighting over a share of the overall tax pool.”121 The same problem faces those who proffer government subsidies in some form as at least part of the answer. Guy Berger of UNESCO points out that resistance to government funding of journalism has faded as the financial problems of news media have intensified: “The debate about the necessity of noncommercial funding the media comes about as Covid has shaken up our ideas of what’s possible. Even in the US, those who used to oppose any idea of public funding and who were firmly in favour of liberal media development, are now ready to accept some form of intervention may be necessary, and are recognizing that public funds for public service media such as NPR are critical. The answer he looks for is somehow to use some of the extraordinary revenues the internet giants manage to extract to support local media, as has been proposed, for example, in Australia. Will that be enough? News media will be under more pressure than before to diversify revenue streams, but too much emphasis on this can distract from the focus of the organisation: is the website or newspaper or radio or TV station an event-organiser or a place where journalism happens? The alternative revenue stream can take over the whole organisation. South Africa has its own example in Naspers, which has morphed over time from a big media house with a small internet business to a big internet business with a small media house. The South African Media24 subsidiary, though large in South Africa, is a small part of Naspers multibillion-rand international operations. Finally, while non-profits are insulated to some extent from the kind of disaster that the disappearance of advertising has been, the forprofit model has its merits. The Mail & Guardian has been in business as a commercial operation with a clear public interest mission for it would not continue, however, without the support of the kind of investor that has the mandate to take the long-term view that investing in independent media requires. MDIF 121. Berger, Interview with Guy Berger, director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Unesco. 34