The Buzz 03.18.21

FREE SPEECH

In March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic became widespread across the U.S., Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism began tracking newsroom cutbacks. A year later, the Journalism Crisis Project, a partnership between Columbia Journalism Review and Tow, has found that the “journalism crisis of the past year has been a crisis across the board, for digital media, magazines, radio and TV stations, and – especially – newspapers.” Many news organizations experienced major declines in advertising revenues during the second quarter of 2020. A total of 30,711 layoffs in the media sector were reported last year (a 201-percent increase from the 10,201 cuts announced in 2019) according to a recent study by the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Tow’s cutback tracker reported a shift away from print as over 160 outlets made changes to their print editions (although some have worked to bring them back). Many newsrooms have cut costs in order to stay afloat, but not all have managed to keep their operations open. The Tow Center reports that at least 66 news outlets have shuttered their doors, including 56 newspapers, three digital outlets, five magazines and one radio station.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We had so many plans. So many plans.” - Jean Chapin speaking about her husband, Craig Hemphill, who died Nov. 13 of Covid-19. (See cover story)

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Good news for the local economy comes this week as Monterey County finally exited the Purple Tier and entered the Red Tier, one step closer to normalcy. Under the new restrictions, which took effect March 17, some additional sectors may reopen, including gyms (at 10-percent capacity) and indoor dining (at 25-percent capacity). Grocery stores can go from operating at 50-percent capacity to full, and retail stores from 25 – to 50-percent capacity. “It’s great to be able to see us moving into the next tier,” says Janine Chicourrat, president of the Monterey County Hospitality Association. “We’re all cautiously optimistic of what the future holds.” Red Tier status is based upon the Covid-19 case rate (4.7 new cases per 100,000 people) and test positivity rate (2 percent), combined with meeting a statewide target for administering 2 million vaccines to California’s hardest-hit communities.

GREAT:

Another great sign of inching our way out of the pandemic is that the respiratory triage tent is down at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. The tent came down on March 12, exactly one year after the first respiratory patient was seen there as Covid-19 was taking off. CHOMP officials erected the tent as a separate area for those coming to the ER who might have been infected with the virus. The tent included a special ultraviolet, high-efficiency filter which provided negative pressure. CHOMP staff assessed 1,633 patients in the tent. A total of 28,236 patients were tested for Covid over the past year, with 1,628 testing positive. Declining case positivity rates and hospitalizations made the tent less needed. Safety protocols are in place to continue to protect patients, visitors and staff, including sending patients with symptoms to a separate room, away from people in the waiting room.