Twitter said Tuesday that it’s donating $1 million to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation ($500,000 each) to support newsrooms while covering the novel coronavirus.

Why it matters: Many newsrooms are struggling with how to balance covering the virus while ensuring the safety of their employees. Others are struggling to cover COVID-19 without the steady stream of ad revenue coming in during the pandemic.

Details: According to a blog post by Twitter’s Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde, the funds will be used to ensure that news organizations “can continue their work in the face of new economic strains and to directly support journalists.”

• Gadde says Twitter is doing this because journalism is core to its service “and we have a deep and enduring responsibility to protect that work.”

The big picture: Dozens of local newsrooms began laying people off this week out of fear the economic hit of the coronavirus could severely hit their ad revenue.

Go deeper: How newsrooms are preparing for coronavirus while also covering it