Stabroek News to close operations in March

“The decision to close Stabroek News has been extraordinarily difficult and painful. As the two main shareholders, and as members of the Board of Directors for the past few years, we have been leading participants in that process. We were guided by events that took place many years ago, and by others of more recent vintage.

In the early 1960s a group of young idealists and intellectuals came together in Georgetown to form the New World Group, determined to analyse Caribbean economies and societies from within. They launched New World Fortnightly, a slim journal that was published locally. It engaged in serious discussions about local industries, policies and culture. Each edition was closely typed with few images or illustrations; advertisements were a rarity.

New World, in its various regional iterations, is now acknowledged as a pathbreaking publication. The local journal came to an abrupt and premature end, however, due to an epic miscalculation. An over-ambitious print run of its Independence Issue incurred losses that made further publication impossible. The experience was a chastening one for all involved. David de Caires was the editor of New World Fortnightly; Miles Fitzpatrick, his lifelong friend and legal partner, assisted, and Martin Carter contributed poems and co-edited an issue.

Our father took two lessons from this experience: a wariness of intellectual hubris and an unshakeable belief in the value of open discourse in a democracy. A generation later, when he started Stabroek News, two New World colleagues, Miles and Martin, would serve as founding Directors of Guyana Publications Ltd (as it then was).

Stabroek News was born in a media environment very different to the one that exists in Guyana today. In the mid-1980s there was only one daily newspaper, the state-owned Chronicle. There were only state-owned radio stations. Local TV coverage was in its infancy. The society was, in many respects, a closed one. Independent voices were scarce: public discourse was reduced to the level of a whisper. Consequently, from the outset, this newspaper’s independence has been pivotal to its role. A few decades ago, the opportunity arose for a merger between Guyana Publications Inc. and other media outlets in the region. Our father, methodical as always, considered the options and canvassed opinions, analyses, and advice from multiple sources. Ultimately the Board decided against it. The newspaper’s independence was felt to be sacrosanct.

Shortly before our father’s death, the newspaper endured a period when advertisements from state-owned companies (a significant source of revenue) were withheld – a rather crude attempt to muzzle the free press. In the past year, the state-run Department of Public Information has accrued a debt to this newspaper in excess of G$ 80,000,000 in unpaid advertisements. The debt persists despite repeated private and public entreaties to clear it. This tactic could equally be construed as an attempt to starve this company of its operating funds.

Publishing has always been a precarious undertaking in Guyana and the Caribbean due to the modest size of the potential readership, and to other market constraints. No-one becomes a publisher in Guyana to grow rich. While the company has never been driven by a concern about profit, it must function as a business. It is a given that any business needs to continually diversify and adapt and to seek alternative sources of income. We have faced significant obstacles. We have repeatedly sought (and been refused) a radio licence. Although we operated a TV subsidiary for a few decades, our main local competitors enjoyed significant privileges. The playing field was not level. The anticipated progression from newspaper to multi-media broadcaster has been impossible.

And the country and the world have moved on. Most people, here and elsewhere, now get their news from other sources. The model of reportage that this paper has cultivated in its lifetime is out of step with the algorithmic formulae that now control the circulation of news online. Balanced coverage is not good click-bait.

These considerations and conditions have shaped this moment and its outcome. But that is only a small part of the story. Viewed in its entirety, our history is a triumph. For 40 years Stabroek News beat the odds – economic, political and cultural – every single day. We published an independent daily newspaper in a country where conditions conspired against any form of daily product, doubly so against any form of independence. The brunt of this Sisyphean task was initially borne by the Editor (David de Caires) and the General Manager (his wife Doreen). Both sacrificed their health, their prime years, and their energy in this cause.

Subsequent editors (Anand Persaud, Anna Benjamin and Cheryl Springer) and Managers (Shaleeza Khan) have shown similar levels of dedication and have kept the company afloat. Much gratitude is also due to Ian McDonald whose conscientious stewardship of the company, after our father’s passing, ensured its continued relevance. To all of them we extend our unreserved thanks. Essentially, though, the company has been the sum of many irreplaceable parts: its editors and managers, auditors and accountants, advertising and circulation, pressmen and reporters, its drivers, cleaners, technical staff, and security.  All have played a role. We thank them.