Saving Stabroek News

Mar 06, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – There is something uniquely Guyanese about a national crisis that inspires  a great many letters to the editor, moaning and groaning,  regrets, an impressive number of Facebook posts, and absolutely no cheques.

The impending closure of Stabroek News has produced precisely that phenomenon. The newspaper is in its final days, which in Guyana means everyone has suddenly become both a media expert and an expert in saving companies from closure. Everywhere you turn someone is announcing that the newspaper must be saved. It is described as a national treasure, a pillar of democracy, a guardian of freedom, a lighthouse of journalism, and occasionally—as a particularly emotional commentator put it last week—the “last moral compass in the Caribbean.”

Now, when you hear language like that, you would imagine that people would immediately start writing large cheques. Perhaps there would be emergency meetings with bankers. Maybe a consortium of patriotic investors would appear. Instead, what we have is something much more Guyanese: a symposium of concern. People are not rescuing the newspaper. They are discussing the possibility of possibly thinking about maybe rescuing the newspaper.

One gentleman wrote a very stirring piece explaining that the nation must “come together to save independent journalism.” He did not say how. But the essay had tremendous punctuation, which I think counts for something.

Another person suggested a public share offering, a subscription model, a cooperative ownership structure, a digital transformation, a philanthropic trust, and possibly crowdfunding. Reading the proposal was thrilling. It was like watching a man design a spaceship on a napkin. The only thing missing was a rocket. But the pattern is familiar. Guyana has always been a country where the imagination is extremely well funded, while the treasury is somewhat less cooperative.

One is reminded of that famous protest many years ago over the siting of the 1823 monument. Passions ran high. There were speeches, petitions, and declarations that the monument must instead be placed on the Parade Ground where, according to the protestors, history would finally feel properly appreciated. It was argued that the government at the time cannot decide where such a monument should be located.  It was said that funds would be raised  to build a monument on Parade Ground.

And so the nation waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently, the funds were being raised in a very discreet manner because the money never actually appeared. It was like one of those invisible friends children claim to have.

Eventually the APNU+AFC government came into office and after many appeals constructed a monument. It was modest. Extremely modest. In fact, if modesty were a competitive sport, that monument would win the Olympic gold medal. But at least it existed. Ironically, the same APNU+AFC government still recognised the original monument which triggered the demands for the new one.

Which brings us back to the present crisis.

The calls to save Stabroek News have reached such a level of enthusiasm that one almost expects a rescue operation to be underway somewhere. Perhaps in a secret room in Georgetown there is a group of wealthy patriots quietly assembling the millions needed to keep the presses running.

But if that meeting exists it is being held with extraordinary secrecy because no one has seen any evidence of it. What we do have are opinions. Everyone has an opinion.

Some say the newspaper must go digital. Others warn that digital journalism is a financial abyss. A few suggest a foundation model like the Guardian. Someone else mentioned blockchain, which is usually what people say when they have run out of ideas but still wish to appear technologically literate. And through all of this discussion, the calendar continues its quiet march. The newspaper is closing in just over a week. But this has not slowed the brainstorming. In fact, the closer the deadline comes, the more imaginative the ideas become. By next Tuesday someone will probably propose relocating the entire operation to the moon where overhead costs are lower and the readership is theoretically limitless.

But ideas are not newspapers. Newspapers require money. Salaries must be paid. Printing presses must operate. Journalists—who, despite popular belief, cannot live entirely on moral satisfaction—must receive something resembling a paycheck. And that is where the conversation tends to become noticeably quieter. Saving a newspaper is not a philosophical exercise. It is an accounting problem.

Which is why the great national campaign to save Stabroek News has so far produced the one thing that newspapers cannot print: good intentions. It turns out that you cannot run a newspaper on sentiment. You can only run it on money. And sentiment, unfortunately, is much easier to produce.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• national crisis, newspaper, Peeping Tom, Saving, Stabroek News

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