Will a global pandemic be the thing that convinces people to finally pay for news?

When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, who are you gong to turn to for information? The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan, or Kim Kardashian?

For those of us who work in or with the media, we have heard for years about fragmenting audiences and the decline of “traditional media”. But if there is one tiny silver lining to this situation from a professional perspective, it’s that I believe we will see a flight back to quality news reporting and quality news brands.

We are living in unprecedented times. Literally. I have lawyers in my family who are looking for legal precedents for how to deal with situations arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting in the slow-rolling shut-down of our country. And they cannot find precedents to deal with it. Everyone is scrambling for information. For precedent. For advice.

I am not suggesting for a second that Facebook and Twitter and the other social networks aren’t playing a vital role in the spread of information here. In fact, I have seen many people say on Twitter as though they feel like they’re getting more information there than from government press conferences. But to me that’s more about the information being provided by officials than the reporting being done by the news houses.

Now, experts and organisations are able to provide information direct to consumers. That’s the upside. The downside is that we all have that one relative who feels no shame posting conspiracy theories to the family WhastApp goup.

In Australia we have had drought, followed by bushfires, and now this pandemic. Since August 2019 and January 2020 we have seen a nearly 33 per cent increase in audience size for the top 10 online news sites in Australia according to the Nielsen Digital Content Ratings. And with news going viral this month (we definitely need some good Dad Jokes now, as Michael Rowland would attest), I’d put my ever decreasing superannuation money on the fact the audience will grow again for March 2020.

Now is the time for the “traditional news”, and I don’t mean the format of the news, just the news brands that over years, sometimes decades, have invested in building large audiences that trust them, to shine.

I’ve seen people online calling for the media houses to open their paywalled coverage about the Coronavirus to view for free. I’m in no way saying they shouldn’t, especially if there is a health benefit for people having all the information. But in Australia we are lucky enough to have the ABC. And if people want a “private” corporate alternative, then I can see the argument for keeping at least some of the coverage of the biggest news story in decades behind a paywall.

Perhaps this is the thing that convinces people that they need to pay for quality news they can trust.