<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b83c69c7e80680e067756jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>The second wave of Covid-19 is breaking across Nepal with devastating effect. Fueled by new and deadly variants, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/microcosms-of-a-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virus is replicating faster here than in India</a> (when adjusted for population) and arguably anywhere else on the planet. Our health systems are already overwhelmed and the economy is fracturing. We have reached the point of no return.At current mortality rates, we need to be prepared for up to 285,000 deaths across the country.We are deeply grateful for the $8.5 million recently pledged by the US Government to support Covid relief efforts in Nepal. These funds are allocated to crucial activities like increasing testing capacity, treatment, infection control, and community level assistance. While extremely valuable, these activities alone will not slow, nor will they stop, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/this-is-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the spread of the virus</a>.Like the wildfires that have burned with unprecedented intensity across the country, Covid is spreading at a rate that is hard to fully comprehend. In a number of major population centers, 75% of all Covid tests are coming back positive, as are 47% of tests nationwide. We anticipate that within two months, ten critically ill patients will be vying for every single available ICU bed. Access to ventilators and medical oxygen face the same constriction in supply.Nepal also depends upon manufacturing in India for the majority of our medical supplies -- including basic items like PPE and oxygen cylinders. As India is neck-deep in its own disaster, these materials will cease to be available for import into Nepal soon. Like during the earthquake, our challenges were compounded by a devastating blockade.This needs to be said directly: it is now impossible to upgrade Nepal’s healthcare infrastructure at the speed and scale necessary to meet the overwhelming demands posed by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-covid-tsunami/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Covid crisis</a>. The only option to save lives is to stop the virus at the source, to extinguish the fire. The only way to do this is through a robust and immediate vaccination campaign.In March, the US Government pledged 4.5 million doses to support vaccination programs in Mexico and Canada. In the last week of April, it pledged to share up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine stockpile. Twenty countries are currently being considered as potential recipients – the list does not include Nepal.We cannot let Nepal disappear into the darkness: there is simply too much at stake. We have written an open letter to the US Ambassador Randy Berry urging him and his colleagues to pursue any means possible to secure an immediate supply of vaccines for Nepal.The bright and free days of winter are already a distant memory as we enter <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-valley-lockdown-till-12-may/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the second week of lockdown</a>. Inevitably, these extreme measures will again slow the spread of the virus and save countless lives. But we also all know this is not a permanent solution.Research shows that, on average, each month of lockdown costs the country approximately 1% of GDP, and this rate grows exponentially over time. Our tolerance for the lockdown will only last so long, and inevitably, despite the exorbitant price tag, this measure of last resort has a very short shelf life.We cannot squander this opportunity again. Nepal has a well-proven ability to distribute crucial public health benefits, including vaccines, to people in every corner of the country, no matter how remote. Our Vitamin A and measles vaccination programs serve as examples for the world.The current lockdown gives us a short window to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/1-6-million-vaccinated-20-million-to-go/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inoculate the population</a> against the inevitable third and fourth waves of the virus. After this, we will yet again cross the threshold into crisis and death.Almost immediately after the dust settled following the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake on 25 April, 2015 the international community sprung into action to support Nepal. The US government alone has provided $130 million for life-saving relief and reconstruction projects since.Unlike the earthquake, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-nepal-can-survive-2nd-covid-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this current disaster</a> is entirely preventable. With help from our longstanding development partners like the US government, we have the opportunity to save tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives across Nepal. Providing surplus vaccine doses to Nepal is an opportunity to reduce unnecessary suffering and death.Unlike with natural disasters, how Nepal manages the coronavirus has profound implications across South Asia and the globe. Stopping the virus here is crucial for the health of our families, the region, and the world.--The Covid Alliance for NepalTo view the open letter to Ambassador Berry, follow this link:Vaccines4nepal.comTo get involved, follow @covidalliancefornepal on Facebook and @alliance4nep on Twitter and Instagram.

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Vaccines are the only solution

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111120/636cd0ed9c7e80680e08f883jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>The Year of Covid hit economies hard, and none more so than the <a href="http://v" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">media business which depends mainly on advertising</a>. With sales down and many businesses going belly-up, the media’s main source of revenue dried up as well.When the lockdown went into effect on 24 March, most legacy media in Nepal stopped their print editions. Nepali Times and Himal Khabarpatrika were one of the first to stop printing in early March, and went fully digital. National broadsheets like Nagarik, Kantipur, Kathmandu Post and The Himalayan Times also halted hardcopies, and terminated their other magazines.Among the broadsheets, only Naya Patrika and Annapurna Post continued to print much slimmer versions of their papers, mainly surviving on government notices.However, within ten days Nepal’s largest-circulation newspaper Kantipur resumed printing after it found out that it was losing market share. “We panicked prematurely, and pausing print production was a near-fatal decision,” admits Mahesh Swar, Assistant General Manager at Kantipur Media Group. “We did lose some confidence of our readers, but we have won most of it back. Resuming print was the best decision we made.”Although it was a question of visibility in the market and a presence in the corridors of power in Singha Darbar, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/media-muzzle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">media</a> as a business has struggled to survive in the past ten months as Nepal’s economy flatlined during the March-July lockdown. The prognosis for 2021 is looking only slightly better.A handful of digital-only portals with lower overheads rode out the crisis, but even they had to cut costs as new sites diluted online readership. Print media found it difficult to get existing companies to switch advertising to their online editions. While page views of their digital editions hit the roof, revenue crashed.Back in April, Shiva Gaunle of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) told this paper that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/in-locked-down-nepal-print-is-still-king/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the resumption of hardcopy</a> was prompted by competition, and the fear of losing a paper’s footprint.“It is true digital media has even more reach during the lockdown, but the publishers seem to have decided that not having a printed newspaper has reduced their clout,” Gaunle says. “In that respect, print is still king.”A <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mobile-nepal-is-hooked-on-youtube/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">survey earlier this year</a> by Sharecast Initiative showed that only 7% of a nationwide sample regularly read print media, while the proportion of people who got their information from online media had grown, but only to 16% by October.“It has been a challenging year for publishers, but they should keep in mind that the readership has not decreased. It's just that the news sources have shifted to the digital platform,” says Madhu Acharya of Sharecast. He adds that the real reason there are not more readers of print is because publishers have not invested in efficient nationwide distribution. “Most respondents in our survey said they would read newspapers if they could buy them easily.”<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/journalism-is-not-a-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Journalist Namrata Sharma</a> believes that older people prefer a physical newspaper because they are in the habit of reading them with their morning cup of tea. “Newspapers are just much easier to read, the letters and pictures are bigger and they do not have to squint into phones,” she says.https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0YfYL0plBNnqDQvITBvW-S4pcOYeQcS2cHoedcDtVArHADUyro3G8y4Tk&amp;v=r6UdpJ-UC_Y&amp;feature=youtu.beThe Sharecast survey shows that the readership of news portals is not much higher, and most people with smartphones use the internet <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/nepals-new-digital-landscape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for entertainment, to connect to family and friends and to watch or share video content</a>. Some 80% of respondents in the survey are on Facebook, with the total number of Nepalis with the app at nearly 9 million. YouTube and TikTok are spreading rapidly as well. Three years ago, only 1% used YouTube, that has grown to 57% in 2019.Acharya says print readership can grow if newspapers and magazines are more readily available to subscribers and in news-stands because of greater literacy levels. Print’s advantage is its shelf-life, and the size of images, which has an edge over a mobile phone screen.“Print newspapers are not going to die because it is something physical that stays with you, there are things you can do with design and use of space on the page that is much more powerful than looking at a small screen,” says Amar Gurung, CEO at Himalmedia, which is resuming the print edition of Nepali Times every Friday from 1 January.Even ad agencies feel that print is a more credible source of information for the public, but they say that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lockdown-crackdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">legacy media</a> has to re-invent itself to be more appealing to advertisers and readers."Print publications have a more loyal readership, and they perceive them as more credible than online," says Ujaya Shakya of Outreach Nepal, and author of Brandsutra.He adds that print readers do not usually multitask when they read a magazine or newspaper, making them more receptive to ads in those publications.However, Shakya says the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-are-drifting-to-digital-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">penetration of digital media is growing</a> faster, and it will gain momentum when it is integrated with print, tv or radio."The biggest challenge for marketers now is the attention span of the digital audience," Shakya adds. "How many times will they click on the banner ad while browsing social media or a site? That is the key question."The print media as it existed 10 years ago is dead. But the content and role of newspapers have changed. Ironically, what appears to have saved print is the proliferation of digital portals, where both news and advertisement tend to be drowned out by the cacophony. To stand out from the crowd, advertisers now prefer a printed paper page.“Print media still helps to create certain level of credibility in communications. With excess noise in digital, and its unregulated content, many people are not sure how much they can trust it. Print provides trust,” says Punam Singh of the Golchha Group which is the distributor of Bajaj motorcycles.It may be a question of time before print is trending again, just as people get tired of digital sound and vinyl record shops are becoming fashionable. Physical newspapers are tactile, their influence is less ephemeral than digital, much like e-books never really took off as people preferred to turn physical pages. The sale of printed books worldwide doubled last year.“A newspaper in your hand is much more real than digital words on a monitor. There is more trust and credibility in a physical paper in this age of fake news,” says Amar Gurung. “Readers of print also tend to read longer articles and are less distracted, whereas online readers prefer shorter items or videos.”This may be the reason why despite the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-message-is-the-medium/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">growth of digital readers</a>, many advertisers in Nepal still prefer ads in print. Indeed, across the world there is a return to print advertising by companies who are turned off by the over-saturation of online, and people disabling ads because they feel pursued by algorithms.“Traditional media's major source of revenue has been ads. But now, we have to think out of the box to generate revenues from other sources as well,” says Gurung.To be sure, there are caveats to print. The content and production values have to be of extremely high quality, there has to be visibility and efficient distribution that makes the media brand stand out. In the end it will be the advertisers who have the last word.Says Prasun Timilsina of Karyala Advertising Inc., “For advertisers, it mostly depends on the audience. While products for youth are usually on digital media, it still makes sense to advertise in newspapers because they are tactile and there is greater retention of content that people see in print. A newspaper is also shared by the entire family, as opposed to digital media which is individual.”

coronavirus-crisis

Vaccines are the only solution

The death of print is exaggerated

2020’s tips for 2021