Coronavirus Pressure on Media Spreads From Alt-Weeklies to Digital News Outlets, Magazines

The first signs that an already fragile media industry was starting to buckle under the pressure of a global pandemic appeared at alternative weeklies across the U.S. From Seattle’s The Stranger to St. Louis’s Riverfront Times and D.C.’s Washington City Paper, a plethora of alt-weeklies have been forced to lay off staff and suspend print editions as they struggle to tread water amid plunging advertising revenues as their biggest clients — local restaurants, bars, retail and festivals — temporarily shut up shop. Now the cracks are starting to spread from those to national digital news organizations and magazines, some of which are having to take drastic measures to keep the lights on. Just last week, BuzzFeed, whose news arm has been without an editor in chief ever since Ben Smith jumped ship to join The New York Times, sent an e-mail to staffers informing them that they would have to swallow a pay cut for at least April and May, with the situation being reviewed on a monthly basis. The cuts will be graduated, ranging from 5 percent for those earning less than $64,900 and as much as 25 percent for the company’s top earners. “It is clear that in the short term, the economy

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