COVID-19 causes new uncertainties for press, says Director-General of Armenpress News Agency

YEREVAN, (Pakistan Point News - 21st May, 2020) The new coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic proved to be a unique stress-test not only for countries, healthcare systems and economies, but also for the press, according to a prominent Armenian media figure.

''We have found ourselves in an era of new uncertainties, and the quest for finding a solution to this equation full of unknowns is becoming harder day by day,'' said Aram Ananyan, Director-General of Armenpress News Agency in an op-ed.

''Now it is the time to learn lessons, rather to teach them or make recaps. In terms of the news media’s future, however, it is possible to make some preliminary observations for the post-pandemic period," he said.

Sometime later the consequences of COVID-19 will impact the daily activities of the press, and the scope of impact will include both content, production and consumption types, as well as business models and human resources management, Ananyan noted.

Most serious challenges, he indicated, may occur for a number of branches of the news media industry, whereas others - for example, radio and tv - can find themselves in a second golden age.

He believed it was the news media itself that turned out to be the most-prepared for switching to telework in numerous countries.

''In this difficult situation, many of our colleagues showed simple solutions reaching the level of genius in tactically and rapidly orientating. If in the past telework was considered a freelancer’s monopoly, now during pandemic conditions it is becoming a usual norm of life,'' Ananyan observed.

And although, he continued, newspapers are still championing in being the most reputed branch of news media, the novel coronavirus pandemic is inflicting the hardest blows to the printed press, the production of which also involves other branches such as printing industry, distribution and subscription services.

In the post-pandemic "New World", he noted, the challenge of strengthening economic capacity will be the hardest one. ''Most likely, this circumstance will force media outlets to pay greater attention to the kind of spheres of activities where the solvent demand will shift to. '' ''If the news media, internet and telecommunications were not to exist, it could have seemed that the post-industrial mankind has returned to the deep Middle Ages. More precisely, the part of the Middle Ages when a man’s movement is limited to their settlement," he explained.

''The projections about the future of global economy and the potential drop of economic activity may inflict a painful blow to the economic opportunities and financial sustainability of media outlets," Ananyan pointed out.

"In short-term perspective, this all might as well not become a serious challenge, but it is crystal clear that the news media will also suffer serious economic losses in conditions of worsening public and economic fears,'' he noted.

According to a projection of the World Economic Forum published years earlier, simultaneously with the growth of the middle class (which was projected to total 4.9 billion people globally in 2030) the demand for new media services was also projected to increase: in the consumer arena of educational, premium content, on-demand video content, healthcare and welfare services.

''A lot may change in the world after the pandemic, but the press, internet and communication will remain equally important. If they were not to exist, we would appear in the deep Middle Ages, wouldn’t we?'' Ananyan concluded.