Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability https://zimbabwe.misa.org news as a public good has especial force where many citizens cannot even because of lack of access to the internet and poverty get their news from the web. The obvious answer, the public broadcasters, is ruled out until state media really become public broadcasters rather than extensions of the state, and the same applies to state media on other platforms and captured media. It is true that a majority of the population in the region must get their news from broadcasters, radio or TV, so focusing on the press or its modern equivalent might seem perverse. But independent newspapers generate news which cannot be ignored by broadcasters. The enthusiasm for cracking down on private news media still in evidence in the region shows that the independent news still plays its role of “afflicting the comfortable”. journalists to move around freely during the lockdown period.124 Donor funding can also help organisations, and should be employed to help organisations navigate the murky waters when migrating online. This is one Internet access and its cost, not examined in great detail here, is decreasing, in some countries more than others. Mobile phone prices have plunged, and new forms of distribution such as e-papers increase access. Yet in an era of extreme financial pressure, media capture promises to reverse the gains of press freedom by making advertising even more dependent on political support. This also applies to the journalists, whose new depths of salaries must make brown-envelope journalism seem like a necessityrather than a choice. The need for donor funding, judiciously applied, is greater than ever. This encompasses organisations that support journalists as well as news organisations. In South Africa the South African National Association of Journalists as well as the South African Freelance Association have supplied monetary support for journalists123 as well as providing advice services, such as advising on what paperwork was needed for It is remarkable that an online-only, hybrid commercial-donor funded news organisation can more easily start a newspaper than forprofit newspapers can profitably and easily move online. It is worth noting that none of the publishers in the region or the world can afford to shut down their print publications entirely. At the same time, the Covid-19 crisis should bring with it greater realization that the business of the media is business. In the days of geographical news monopolies, routines and ways of working developed which separated the audience form the journalists and freed, in fact prohibited, media practitioners from involvement in the business side of the news. Financial exigencies have caused the Chinese wall between editorial and commercial to crumble, especially for the small, nimble start-ups such as 263 Chat we value for their propensity for and ability to experiment. Being business-like does not mean pursuing click-bait practices and the newspaper equivalent of heightened sensationalism at all costs that cannot be ethically justified. And as has been illustrated vividly in South Africa by the SARS Rogue Unit scandal examined by Prof Anton Harber, bad journalism driven by the profit motive can boost the corrupt and damage the reputation of the news organisation.125 What being businesslike does mean is the focus on the audience and the use of the information about the audience provided by data in the digital environment as urged by Styli Charalambous of Daily Maverick. The data must in turn, most 123. Kate Skinner, Information of SANEF media relief fund, Phone interview, August 7, 2020. 124. Kate Skinner, SANEF and Covid-19, September 17, 2020. 125. Harber, “Journalism Makes Blunders but Still Feeds Democracy.” 36