In their article for The New York Times, Tiffany Hsu and Marc Tracy cover the coronavirus global pandemic and the effect the stay at home orders are having on local newspapers across the country.  COVID-19, the virus that originated in Wuhan, China and has now swept across the globe is having devastating consequences on local economies which includes daily papers struggling to hang on.  One example of this that the article covers is in St. Louis Missouri where a paper known as the Riverfront Times tries to cope with the global health crisis.  The already struggling paper apparently knew they were in dire trouble when the local restaurants that provide the organization with advertising revenue began shutting down as a result of government containment efforts.  The loss of local events that provide sponsorship money for small papers such as the Riverfront Times have decimated these small businesses revenue streams and threaten to end their publications once and for all.  With lay offs across many of these local publications, newspaper owners are looking for creative ways to help stimulate life into their businesses. 

While I find this news to be incredibly sad and disheartening to learn how far reaching the COVID 19 virus’s affects are on our economy, I am not at all surprised.  With digital news completely overtaking print media in recent years, small newspapers have been playing catch up to try and remain relevant for years now.  All it took was one massive and unpredictable financial downturn to serve as the final nail in the coffin for many of these small businesses.