NOAB Urges Govt to Stand by Newspaper Industry

The Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) on Friday urged the government to stand firmly beside the newspaper industry amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) said this through a statement issued on Friday.

''Sale of newspapers has plunged severely, so did the number of advertisements. Many newspapers across the country have stopped publishing and shifted online. As a result, many of the newspapers are unable to maintain the regular payment of their employees,'' it said.

''Newspapers that decided to continue publishing have had to adopt cost-cutting techniques in order to keep up by reducing the number of pages, the volume of printing, coloring pages, as well as cutting down on other administrative expenses.''

While some are paying half of the actual amount, others are struggling to do that as well. Despite all the efforts to reduce costs, survival has become extremely challenging. Due to such instability, the printing and distribution of all newspapers in Chattogram was in a hiatus for a good while.

NOAB held multiple meetings with the Information Minister regarding the situation during the ongoing pandemic where several proposals were put forward by the newspapers to tackle the crisis.

''However, the outcome has not been fruitful. Many other sectors have received government support at various levels. We are hopeful that the government will take special initiatives to address our problems too,'' stated the statement.