Our office is a constant subscriber of four English dailies namely The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post, The Republica and The Rising Nepal for many years. Besides, Nepali Times, People’s Review and other few English magazines are regularly sent to my spacious office room.
I might be the Chinese person who reads Nepal’s English newspapers most often due to my profession. As a humble reader and serious learner, I take off my hat to most of the editors and reporters serving these media for both their industry and professionalism.
Comparisons are odious. Before the outbreak of COVID-19 in this January, I got a chance to return to China for a meeting. In the passenger compartment on my flight, China Daily was provided free of cost and to my surprise, this famous daily looked like an old card without much improvement after my long separation. I frowned at some poor stories, realizing that it had fallen behind the times.
The times, however, for Nepal’s print media is also quite hard and the COVID-19 has made the situation from bad to worse.
First, a great many readers are gone with the pandemic, which is like a French leave. I was in the habit of going through newspapers everyday, but since the nationwide lockdown where Nepal went into on March 24, I found it difficult to get access to print version of those familiar dailies. Some ceased publication, some failed to reach the office. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, I miss not much important news thanks to their online versions available all the time.
Habit cures habit and it takes about 21 days to form a new habit. The lockdown has lasted nearly two “21 days”, which are enough to make a new generation of online or mobile reading, leaving the newspapers and magazines off the map.
Second, the traditional income sources of those media began to dry up as a result of the unprecedented economic depression caused by outbreak of COVID-19. That’s to say, many of their sponsors and advertisers are gone with the crisis, which makes it a lost cause for Nepal to maintain financial stability and keep the nation’s economy flowing on the normal course as before in the near future.
It was reported last month that Kantipur Publications, a leading media conglomerate, forced its staffs to take unpaid leave. A lot of media houses are hard pressed for money and behindhand in their circumstances at this time of day. Similar things are bound to happen one after another. I don’t think many media in Nepal have the philosopher’s stone to ride out the storm easily. Hard times will continue and more media persons will fell the fraught.
Time is out of joint.
Sink or swim?
Please take your choice!
The writer is Bureau Chief of Xinhua News Agency in Kathmandu, Nepal.
