Stabroek News to cease printing next month 

Stabroek News, one of Guyana’s daily newspapers, will cease printing from March 15.

In a report published on Friday on its website, Stabroek News said the Chairman of Guyana Publications Inc (GPI), Brendan de Caires told employees of the decision.

He also reportedly told the company’s employees that the paper has been grappling with falling circulation and dwindling revenue. Soon, the GPI will shortly begin the process of voluntary liquidation.

“Falling circulation and dwindling revenues impose a choice between corporate mergers, rapid digitization, or managed decline. For the last five years, the Board of Directors of our company has weighed its options, including going digital against the near certainty of print media’s failure. In the end, we have made the decision to choose liquidation while we remain solvent and the company can pay its debts rather than risk a forced closure in the next few years,” he was quoted as saying.

Stabroek News was founded in 1986 by attorney David de Caires, and together with his wife, Doreen de Caires, the two were the driving forces behind the newspaper. The newspaper became a daily in 1994.

In another article, titled “The End of an Era,” Brendan and his sister Isabelle said the Stabroek News family is exiting the media landscape as it entered.

“Unbowed. Heads held high. Beholden to none. It will be for others to take the full measure of this newspaper’s contribution to the democratic process in Guyana, and to the nation’s ability to talk and listen to itself in civil tones, without invective, rancour or malice. Stabroek News has nurtured a generation or two of readers, writers, thinkers and pundits. It is time to hand over the baton,” they wrote.