Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 29, 2008 Features / Columnists, My Column
There was a time when newspapers abounded in this country. As a young man there were the dailies—Graphic, Chronicle and Argosy—and the political organs, New Nation, Mirror, and Catholic Standard. Each paper had its readership but the Graphic was way ahead of all, printing as many as 130,000 copies on Sundays. The daily circulation was a healthy 60,000.
The Chronicle was privately owned and it eventually went to the wall but this was only after the Argosy folded. That was the smallest of the circulations and I never took the time to find out why one newspaper was more popular than the other. I remember the New Nation printing somewhere about 20,000 copies at weekends.
Of course, the price of the newspapers was relatively low when compared to the earnings of the populace. As a student I used to buy one newspaper every day and three on Sundays. I paid the princely sum of eight dollars per month.
The Chronicle died after the Argosy and the Daily and Sunday Graphic ruled the roost. The then government bought the assets of the Chronicle and offered some competition to the Graphic which was then owned by the Lord Thompson empire.
But Lord Thompson was divesting his assets and not too long after the government acquired the assets and merged them with the Chronicle. And for the longest while that was the only daily newspaper in the land until the Stabroek News made its emergence.
Of course the economic conditions had changed; it was slightly more difficult to buy newspapers but people still bought a lot. The Chronicle boasted a circulation of about 65,000 on Sundays during the 1980s. The advent of Stabroek News saw a small decline. Competition among newspapers had returned to Guyana.
Kaieteur News emerged nearly a decade after Stabroek News and it was really difficult to break into the readership market. There were gimmicks and a host of things, some of which were never considered by the news establishment.
In the end the newspaper carved out its niche and defied the naysayer who once believed that the society only had room for two newspapers.
Today there is a fourth, but it comes at a time when good reporters are a scarce commodity because many have migrated to seek their fortunes elsewhere. When Kaieteur News came on the scene there were reporters around, some of them having retired from the world of work but could not live on their pension.
And that is another issue these days. Scarcely anyone could live on the pension they get because inflation has eroded the value. There is a computation that is still being applied although one suspects that the computation is outdated.
Judges, who were among the top earners in the government sector and who at one time could afford to live comfortably, are now back into the world of work. Even police commissioners who once retired to a comfortable life must continue to work.
However, back to the newspaper business. The most recent additions to the newspaper business took the task one day at a time. Both Stabroek News and Kaieteur News began with weekend editions. The newest kid on the block, Guyana Times, jumped into the fray with a daily.
To do this it needs tremendous help so it has poached reporters from the other media houses with offers of a better salary but these people have to sign long-term contracts. Nothing is wrong with that except that already some of those who entered into contracts want out. Something must be wrong in that place.
Then there is the question of the lifeblood of any media entity, advertisement. The bulk of the advertisements come from the private sector but everyone knows that the business community sees advertising as expenditure rather than as an investment.
So the less they spend as far as they are concerned the better for them. And it is for this reason that the pages of Guyana Times are not adorned with large volumes of advertisement, at least not yet.
But there are those who like the appearance of the paper and place their advertisements but these are few so it is here that the government steps in.
I saw a government advertisement in the newspaper this past week and I began to question the reason for the withdrawal of the advertisements from Stabroek News. The issue here was about circulation.
I know for a fact that the Guyana Times does not have the circulation to warrant one iota of advertisement from the government.
I admire the venture, though. The word is that Guyana needs a breath of fresh air in the news media; it needs a newspaper that would protect the image of the nation by downplaying the incidence of crime.
If that is the case, I surely must keep looking for the new development because the same thing that the others do this newspaper is doing. Crime reports adorn the front pages. It is the same thing with the others so I can only assume that the move is to attract a readership, then perhaps go to what the original intention was.
When that happens I would believe in this new look thing.
But there is more. Copyright laws exist but this newspaper seems not to be in the loop because from time to time I would see photographs that are the property of Kaieteur News adorning the pages of this new paper. I have found out that at no time was permission sought for this infringement.
But there is an upside to the presence of this newspaper. I see more reporters from that entity at news conferences than from any other entity.
Perhaps the aim is to get in more questions than anyone else so that there could be many stories to compensate for the preponderance of foreign news that adorn the pages.
I want this newspaper in the market place because no other newspaper would dare to be complacent. One slip and readership goes. Managers would have to treat their staff better because at the drop of a hat the reporter knows that he or she has options.
Something good has come out of the establishment of this newspaper but there should be no special favours.
Kaieteur News for about a decade thrived on the wits and skills of its management. There were no government advertisements and this was understood. It must be the same now. Let the contest rage on.
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