This week, Kos Media, which runs Daily Kos and Civiqs, received a $1.4M loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The program was created as a part of the CARES Act to help small businesses such as ours weather downturns in revenue due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I’m sure you’ve all read about the thousands of layoffs at dozens and dozens of media companies. The Atlantic even announced a round today. These are incredibly tough times for most sectors of the economy, but the media industry has been hit especially hard—and this is after a brutal 2019.
Kos Media applied for the loan because of the uncertainty of the pandemic’s effects on our company’s future. We have already seen our revenue decrease relative to our projections. Protecting the jobs of our staff and freelancers is our main priority, and this loan will provide funds so we can avert layoffs, furloughs, and wage reductions. We also want to keep our commitment to the Daily Kos community and all our Kos Media clients and partners by providing the services and features y’all expect.
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the program. We have written stories on it and developed advocacy campaigns calling for oversight and to root out corruption. We will continue to do so—and will continue to push for more stimulus funds for small businesses. We continue to put pressure on our government to do more to help people who’ve lost their jobs and employees who are working though hazardous conditions and to help shore up state and local budgets. And we won’t stop there.
Daily Kos has raised over $2,100,000 for outside progressive groups and Democratic candidates so far in 2020, including over $1,000,000 for organizations providing relief related to COVID-19. The PPP loan will ensure that Kos Media continues to provide our community with “news you can do something about” here at Daily Kos and with public opinion survey data on the financial and personal impacts of the coronavirus pandemic over at Civiqs.
