"We found that Covid-19 intensified economic pressures facing the global news media industry. It accelerated the decline of many news publishers’ most profitable revenue stream—printed newspaper advertising and circulation. Outlets in low- and middle-income countries have been the most severely impacted, with a rate of decline almost two times faster than the global average. Record growth in digital advertising and online subscription revenue in 2020 will not be sufficient to make up the difference. This has led to newsroom closures, layoffs and pay cuts for journalists at a time when access to trustworthy information is desperately needed. Covid-19 could help drive innovation in the news media industry, as outlets find alternative revenue streams by developing new products and tapping into new audiences. But in low- and middle-income countries, where many outlets operate in an unstable business environment and have limited access to investment capital, philanthropy and government support, the pandemic threatens the fundamental existence of free, fair, independent news media ecosystems." (Executive summary, page 8)

"In order to explore the impact of the pandemic on media viability in the Global South, Economist Impact chose a selection of countries for in-depth case studies. Countries were selected to capture diversity in geography, GDP, size of media market and availability of data (or lack thereof). They include Brazil, El Salvador, Indonesia, Jamaica, Lebanon, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Tunisia. We provide a brief summary of relevant data and policy initiatives for each of these countries in discrete case study boxes in the section below where we present our findings at regional level." (Methodology, page 15)