Editor's weekly digest: Plea for support edition

The news business is weird — reporting and readership thrives in times of crisis. At the same time, most media companies are built on advertising models. And in times of crisis, advertisers spend less.

This fundamental mismatch in supply and demand makes it both an interesting environment to work in and a very challenging one. At times when you'd need to invest most in coverage, revenue is tight.

This problem is most nakedly visible in large, publicly-owned media companies — many...