Stabroek News announces closure, citing financial strain, digital shift

Stabroek News, one of Guyana’s daily newspapers is set to close, with its main shareholders describing the decision as “extraordinarily difficult and painful,” as they pointed to mounting financial losses and what they described as a rapidly changing media landscape. In a statement published in its Friday edition, the newspaper’s principal shareholders of Guyana Publications Inc (GPI) said the decision followed years of financial strain compounded by structural challenges within Guyana’s small advertising market. While acknowledging a long-standing dispute over unpaid Government advertising, including more than $80 million owed by the state-run Department of Public Information (DPI), Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud on Friday said that the debt by DPI is not a reason that led to the overall decision to end its operations, as even if this was paid, the paper still cannot sustain itself in the current landscape.

“Now, it wasn’t necessarily a factor in the newspaper making the decision to close, that is, even if DPI had paid us on time we still would have been under stress because of the change in the markets…,” he said in an interview with Prime News on Friday. “…over time, both the advertising and subscription market fell away because people were so engrossed on their phones and what they can see in live real time, newspapers can only provide the next day, 24 hours after and that became obsolete,” he said. Meanwhile the two major shareholders, Isabelle and Brendan de Caires, children of its founder, David de Caires, in announcing their decision to close the operations noted, “no one becomes a publisher in Guyana to grow rich; it must function as a business.” It was added that the migration of audiences and advertisers to digital platforms, coupled with the realities of operating in a small market, has reshaped the economics of news production in ways that have proven difficult for the print operations to withstand. Speaking at World Radio Day 2026 celebrations at the National Communications Network (NCN), Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Kwame McCoy said the country continues to benefit from “freedom, media freedom, press freedom.”
“Our press is as free as the birds can fly and have the ability to fly,” McCoy declared, noting that Guyana now has 22 radio stations and 21 television stations, alongside numerous social media-based media houses. Reacting to news of the announced closure of the newspaper, the Minister said he was saddened.
“It is regrettable to know of the intended closure of Stabroek News by mid-March 2026. It is truly an indication of how porous the global media landscape is and a stark reminder to those in the media business that they must constantly take into consideration evolving their strategy to deal with competitive market forces and changing media dynamics, including the eruption of social media.” McCoy said.
Stabroek News was launched in the mid-1980s.