Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Austria’s Media Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted every aspect of our lives, including the media industry. With the crisis creating great uncertainty, the media industry has played a crucial role in providing up-to-date information and entertainment during times of quarantine and social distancing. However, the pandemic has also hit the media industry hard, resulting in a loss of advertising investment and increased unemployment rates. As a consequence of such difficult times, the Austrian media industry faces unique challenges regarding (re-)financing its products and searching for new monetization models, mainly due to changes in user behavior in the digital and online sphere for both news and entertainment sectors. These challenges added to the existing problems of the media industry in Austria, where media companies were already struggling with shrinking revenues and declining readership even before the pandemic. Through this research project, we want to understand how the Austrian media industry has reacted to these challenges and the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. Thus, the project aims to record, analyze, differentiate, and compare the transformation processes initiated, forced, or accelerated by the pandemic and evaluate its economic, management, and cultural implications for media development in Austria. To achieve these goals, the project uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, including market analysis, qualitative expert interviews with media managers and advertising industry representatives, a survey with media professionals from all media sectors to understand changes in media production and practice, and consumer surveys about media usage behavior, changes in media reception, and media performance during and after the pandemic. This research project is an important step toward understanding the pandemic`s economic, management, cultural, and journalistic implications on Austria`s media industry. It will help identify characteristics and trends unique to the Austrian media industry and compare them to international trends. The project findings will be of great interest to media managers and will help inform policy decisions and develop strategies to support the industry`s growth and sustainability.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed Austria's media industry under unprecedented pressures, exposing and intensifying long-standing structural weaknesses. What changes did the crisis trigger? Which opportunities remained unrealized, and which innovation impulses continue to shape the sector today? What role did government measures play, and how did media use, audience expectations, and public trust evolve? These questions were at the core of the research project "Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Austria's Media Industry", which provides a comprehensive assessment of the pandemic's impact on Austria's media landscape. The study draws on market analyses, interviews with media executives, and surveys of journalists and audiences focusing on media use, trust, and perceived media performance during and after the crisis. The findings reveal a nuanced picture. The pandemic acted as a stress test that demonstrated the organizational and journalistic resilience of Austrias media sector, while simultaneously exposing long-standing structural vulnerabilities. Rather than representing a fundamental rupture, the crisis acted as a magnifying glass, making pre-existing problems and development paths more visible and accelerating ongoing trends. Against this backdrop, the study underscores that the future of the sector requires more than short-term crisis management. Transparent and fair media policy frameworks, greater room for innovation - including the possibility of failure - strong media brands, and a broader societal recognition of independent journalism as a cornerstone of democracy are essential. A central insight is: the pandemic did not primarily drive radical transformation but instead accelerated developments already underway. Short-term adjustments outweighed strategic realignments. Many media organizations shifted into survival mode, implementing cost-cutting measures, streamlining workflows, accelerating digital processes, and rapidly expanding remote work. These steps were mainly aimed at maintaining operational continuity. Time and resources for long-term strategies, new business models, or high-risk innovation were often lacking. Consequently, innovation tended to be situational, driven by immediate necessity rather than strategic planning. Government support played a key stabilizing role. Instruments such as short-time work schemes and public subsidies helped secure employment and allowed many media organizations to overcome the acute phase of the crisis. At the same time, these measures offered limited incentives for sustainable innovation. While funding was widely perceived as indispensable, it did not act as a catalyst for long-term transformation. Audiences were equally central to the crisis dynamic. In the early stages of the pandemic, established media outlets experienced a sharp rise in attention and trust as audiences sought reliable information. Over time, however, skepticism increased, news avoidance grew, and trust in media and journalism declined noticeably. Trust remains a critical resource, but it does not automatically translate into a willingness to pay. This only emerges when media organizations are perceived not only as credible sources of information, but as independent institutions with integrity.