Even as local news outlets are seeing record traffic on their websites, one of their main revenue sources is drying up. Advertising for area events and establishments is nearly non-existent thanks to coronavirus-related cancellations and closures. Media outlets are reacting to the sudden change with layoffs, pay cuts, and calls for reader support.

Washingtonian Magazine has laid off its fellows and instituted a 10 percent pay cut for staffers amid a drop in revenue due to the coronavirus.

“We’re in an unprecedented economic environment, and we’re a business that depends on advertisements—and spills a lot of ink helping readers navigate entertainment and dining and travel and culture options that are closed right now,” says editor in chief Michael Schaffer over email. “Given the climate and the likely effect on businesses that buy ads, we had to do this to help us navigate this totally unpredictable time. I’m hoping we go back to normal soon and the magazine (and the rest of society) can resume full functioning soon.”

Staffers learned about many of the changes, which also include cutting all freelance contributors and expenses, in an all-staff email from President and CEO Cathy Merrill on Monday.

“The outlook is unfortunately not good for the near future,” wrote Merrill. “We are doing everything we can to help preserve and protect Washingtonian, our employees, and our healthcare.”

[For the latest on coronavirus in our region, click here.]

The fellows were laid off on Tuesday. Washingtonian’s fellowship program is targeted at new graduates looking to get experience in journalism, with responsibilities including fact-checking the magazine and writing for the website. There are currently four fellows listed on the website for the spring fellowship, which typically goes from January through May. They’re paid $14 an hour and work 40 hours per week without benefits. Staff have pitched in to raise $900 for the fellows after they got laid off.

The 10-percent pay cut for staffers is effective immediately, per Merrill’s email, and excludes workers making less than $40,000. Another exception is salespeople, who are paid on commission and have already seen pay decreases. “We, of course, hope that if we have a strong Fall we can make this up with bonuses at the end of the year,” she wrote to staff.

Washingtonian’s website lists approximately 70 employees across all departments, including fellows. It’s not clear how many of them are full-time staffers, or how many are exempted from the pay cut.

The magazine’s May issue is moving forward, Merrill said in her email. A source who works at Washingtonian, who asked for anonymity to speak freely, said that the previously scheduled cover story had been scuttled in favor of something more timely. Print editions of Washingtonian are generally completed six weeks ahead of time. “Think about how different we are from a week ago today,” says the employee. “Trying to peer six weeks into the future is really difficult.”

For publications like Washingtonian, advertising from venues, restaurants, and other establishments makes up the bulk of its revenue—and those places have canceled their events or been forced to shutter or change their business models due to the spread of the coronavirus, leading to a drop in advertising dollars. (Disclosure: the author has previously freelanced for Washingtonian, Washington City Paper, and Brightest Young Things.) Additional ways for local media to make money, like holding events, have also been scuttled amid the pandemic.

Other local outlets are hurting, too.  Washington City Paper wrote that the “paper is losing a lot of money from canceled events and lost ad sales,” asking readers to consider joining its membership program. “You need us, and we need you—we really need you.”

It’s not the first time in recent memory that City Paper faces an uncertain future. In 2017, its publisher at the time put the newspaper on the market. (Local millionaire Mark Ein ultimately purchased the alt-weekly.)

“The well-being of our staff is of utmost concern and, with the support of our ownership, we currently have no plans to stop the print edition or cut salaries or staffing,” says City Paper’s publisher and chief development officer Duc Luu over the email. “We’re asking our loyal readers to consider supporting us during these challenging times by joining our membership program.”

Brightest Young Things, which covers D.C. arts and culture and produces events and festivals, is facing an existential threat, says founder Svetlana Legetic.

“I have spent 14 years trying to diversify us enough that we are never at the risk of one thing going south,” she says. “And in two weeks, it’s like a switch has been flipped and we don’t exist anymore as a business.”

Normally, Brightest Young Things has a more threadbare winter before things start to heat up again with the weather. Not this year. “March basically got cancelled and spring got cancelled as a season,” says Legetic. “What is happening is that even the outstanding invoices for advertising or events or sponsorships aren’t going to come in.” Another source of income, future tickets, is complicated by the fact that Eventbrite isn’t current paying out hosts because they’re facing so many refunds.

Legetic says that the company has a page where people can give support, “but I don’t want to be overly aggressive with it.”

Brightest Young Things has 12 full-time staffers, herself included, and 15 contributors who receive a stipend for their work. Already, the contributors have stopped working because there’s nothing for them to review. Legetic says she told her full-time staff that they will get paid for this month but that the company is “not fine beyond this month … I had to tell my entire staff that, unless something dramatically changes, I can’t guarantee you anything.” Legetic isn’t paying herself this month, she adds.

Brightest Young Things has been making daily survival guides. “We want to still be engaging with our audience, to provide engaging, positive, sane, safe content,” says Legetic. “Economically, we’re kind of back to where this began, which is that you do it because you love it.”

While revenue may be in decline, the work that local publications do is more vital than ever. Washingtonian’s website, which has switched its scope to publish more breaking news and updates about the impacts of coronavirus, has seen a huge bump in traffic—four times its normal rate of page views, per an employee. “Everyone’s just throwing themselves into the work,” says the employee.

Luu says that while City Paper has “seen a drop off in print advertising, we’ve seen a surge in online engagement. We are determined to keep bringing the people of Washington, D.C., especially the 25 percent who lack broadband access and 17 percent who don’t have access to computers, free news about how this unprecedented event is impacting their city.”

Scott Brodbeck, the founder and publisher of Local News Now, runs four local sites in Northern Virginia: ARLnow, Reston Now, Tyson’s Reporter, and Alexandria Now. He says that the sites are doing two-to-four-times the traffic as usual, even as concerns about the future remain.

“My number-one priority from where I sit is to keep informing our community to the best extent we can,” Brodbeck says. “To do that, we need our staff. But I don’t think anybody could tell you what’s going to happen a week from now. We’re taking it one week at a time.”

That commitment to around-the-clock coverage has its own impact on revenue for some outlets, including WAMU, which owns DCist. The public radio outlet has postponed its yearly spring on-air fundraising drive, which was previously slated to begin Friday, “so that we could avoid interrupting any news programming during such a critical time,” per WAMU General Manager JJ Yore.

The lion’s share of WAMU’s revenue comes from individual memberships and corporate sponsors. Yore says over email that the station estimates it’ll lose more than $1 million through June 30 due to the coronavirus, but does not currently foresee employee layoffs. Indeed, the station is transitioning some part-time journalists to full-time and bringing freelancers on board to help cover the crisis, per Yore.

Yore adds that the station will devote all money budgeted as a contingency and a planned contribution to its reserves—approximately $2 million—to cover any shortfalls and beef up coverage. “We also expect to reallocate some current spending to support our news service,” he says.

Media is far from the only industry impacted by the pandemic and the accompanying economic downturn. In particular, the hospitality industry has seen widespread dismissals. D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt said on Tuesday that restaurant layoffs alone could see the city’s unemployment rate increase from 4.9 percent to between 15-20 percent.

This story has been updated with quotes from Duc Luu, Svetlana Legetic, Scott Brodbeck, and JJ Yore.