"Media owners point to shifting reading habits as the primary reason two legacy newspapers have folded in the Caribbean so far this year: Guyana’s Stabroek News and Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday.
Stabroek News printed its final edition on Sunday and halted its online publication. Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday stopped publishing its print and online editions in January.
Newspapers in the Caribbean, which have covered corruption, political upheaval, deadly natural disasters and the oddball story worthy of a short novel, have struggled to attract and retain readers — like print media worldwide — proving little competition to influencers and social media.
The windup of Daily News Limited, which published Newsday, was due to a 'perfect storm of challenges,' said the company’s managing director, Grant Taylor, noting that print advertising fell by 75% over the last decade.
In the case of Stabroek News, its 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."
