Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Carlon Augustus said he remembers reading the newspapers his grandparents bought every day, but now he turns to social media for news. “Everything is on social media now. Whatever happens today, you don’t have to wait to get the papers tomorrow,” he said. Media owners pointed to that kind of shift toward real-time updates online as a primary reason two legacy newspapers in the Caribbean have shut down this year: Guyana’s Stabroek News and Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday.
Stabroek News printed its final edition on Sunday and stopped publishing online. The paper was established in November 1986, a year after its founder asked Guyana’s then-president to accept the creation of an independent newspaper. At the time, Guyana was six years away from its first free and fair elections in nearly 30 years, and Stabroek News later became known for what supporters described as independent journalism and high standards.
In Trinidad and Tobago, Newsday stopped publishing its print and online editions in January. Judy Raymond, Newsday’s former editor-in-chief, said the closure is “definitely a loss to the country, to our democracy, where particularly in this age of social media, credible professional media houses are needed more than ever.” She said Newsday was known for coverage that appealed to working readers and for amplifying voices of people struggling to get help, particularly in Tobago.
Maharaj, president and cofounder of the Media Institute of the Caribbean, said the impact is especially severe because both newspapers were independently owned. She said the closures narrow “that” range of voices, describing independently owned outlets as offering variety that was less susceptible to influence from advertisers or power players. Newspapers across the region have struggled to attract and retain readers, and Maharaj and others said those challenges have intensified as competition from influencers and social media rises.
Stabroek News’ supporters also highlighted its role as a platform for debate and public discussion after years of authoritarian rule. Lawyer Christopher Ram wrote in an essay published by the paper that its letters page provided “perhaps the most open and democratic public forum in Guyana.” He added that over time the forum became an informal meeting place where academics, trade unionists, political figures, public servants, businesspeople and ordinary citizens debated public matters “as equals.”
The paper’s influence extended beyond straight news, with op-ed writing attracting literary figures including Guyanese poets Martin Carter and Ian McDonald, according to the report. The newspaper also covered the general election in October 1992, which ushered in democracy in Guyana. While the country still has three other papers—one state-owned and another closely linked to the ruling party—one of the remaining outlets recently began asking web visitors how willing they would be to pay to read online content.
Some readers expressed dismay at the end of the printed product. Early Ward, a retired 76-year-old beverage company manager from Guyana, said he felt depressed about Stabroek News’ demise and described a longstanding preference for holding and reading newspapers “anytime,” saying he now relies on TV and social media for news.
Journalist Wesley Gibbings, vice president of the Jamaican-based Media Institute of the Caribbean, said Caribbean newspapers once enjoyed solid financial backing and became a status symbol, when “People would be seen walking with a physical copy of newspapers.” He said Big Tech platforms began attracting advertising content and revenue while mining mainstream media content, and he warned that the “danger signs have been up for a very long time,” arguing that the region is in a “watershed period” and the “crashes will continue.”
For Newsday’s owner, the windup of Daily News Limited was due to what company managing director Grant Taylor described as a “perfect storm of challenges,” with print advertising falling by 75% over the last decade. Raymond said, in hindsight, Newsday “could have worked harder at broadening the revenue stream from online publications,” and she also said that even switching to a digital-only model would not have guaranteed survival given what she said happened to Loop News, a regional online news source that closed last July.
In the case of Stabroek News, owners said the government paid “a mere” $7.5 million toward a debt of some $90 million owed for advertising services in the past year. The newspaper said overdue bills and a drop in government advertising were not the main reasons for its demise, writing that “Readership patterns have changed dramatically, and fewer readers are willing to purchase printed editions — or even pay for electronic versions.” The report included a recently published letter mourning the closure, including concerns tied to what the letter described as “allegations of massive public corruption,” and Stabroek News editor-in-chief Anand Persaud said, “We leave at this stage,” adding that he wanted to ensure “our independence is not on the line.”