As coronavirus continues to spread, we know you have questions about how it impacts you, what you can do and what it might mean. We want the most people possible to have access to those answers so we’re removing our paywall from the stories that aim to answer them.

That means free digital access for all, not subject to subscription or a meter, on select public service stories like this one: Mortality rate of coronavirus is 3.4% worldwide — more than double that of the flu. Here’s everything we know about COVID-19.

These stories will have a Free Digital Access label so you can easily identify them, and will be clearly identified on our website.

We also know some wonder why all articles aren’t free, all the time. The simple reason is we deal in reporting, in investigating, in fact-finding and working to help people understand complex stories, such as coronavirus.

That is ridiculously expensive to do. Journalism that aims to help people navigate their community and world, understand their city and hold powerful systems to account used to be supported by ad revenue. That business model has been hard hit in the media industry, but the work that goes into journalism did not get any cheaper.

It also didn’t get less important. In fact it’s more important then ever as we face ongoing global uncertainty, climate change, polarization and misinformation, both wilful and unintentional, on an unprecedented scale. Journalists are an antidote to that confusion, committed to looking for facts.

This media financial crisis is industry wide and international. Though newsrooms have been shrinking across Canada, the U.S. and around the world, many in the public believe everything is OK, in part because there is more information (differing from reporting) than ever.

It is most acutely felt in local news, which has been hit the hardest. This is why all news is not free. Without the support of subscribers, we would not be able to do the journalism you expect from us, from city hall and Queen’s Park to inequity, social justice and investigations. A huge thank you to our subscribers, and supporters of local, Canadian news.

We all have to balance that need for revenue to afford to report with a public service mandate, which most journalists, and the Star in particular, believe in and are driven by. That is behind our decision to remove these select public service stories from our paywall.

There are so many questions that need to be answered and news will evolve, so please keep checking back. You can find all of our coronavirus coverage here: thestar.com/coronavirus.