The Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal won't be in print after January 31, 2019 and will only be available digitally.
“Faced by the transformations that the press industry is witnessing in Lebanon and the world, and the continuous decline in sales and advertising revenues in the local market, the administration of al-Mustaqbal newspaper has decided to stop issuing the daily’s print edition as of February 1, 2019,” it said in a statement.
The newspaper decided to switch to an all-digital business format and will be managed by Georges Bkassini, al-Mustaqbal’s incumbent managing editor.
Al-Mustaqbal, which appeared on newsstands for the first time 20 years ago, will be printed for the last time on Tuesday, January 31. Nevertheless, the administration promised that the newspaper will continue to seek offering the current and future readers of its print edition, "the best media service, with the spirit of the national and Arab message that it has carried since its establishment.”
The daily also pledged to “follow up on the profound transformations that the press industry is witnessing across the world.”
The press in Lebanon has been in crisis for several years. In September 2018, al-Anwar newspaper also ceased its print edition citing financial difficulties.
In June, pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, which was founded in 1946, closed its Lebanon offices and stopped printing in Beirut, leaving its international version only available online.
In late 2016, Lebanese newspaper as-Safir disappeared from the newsstands after 42 years in circulation.
Other newspapers have carried out massive layoffs or/and suspended salary payments.
Ask anyone in the newspaper business and they’ll tell you that print no longer makes sense for mass news media.Yet amid this climate, and despite many media commentators declaring the death of print, sources to ArabAd revealed that Lebanon will soon witness the launch of a brand new newspaper, Nida' al-Watan. Going against the tide of the times, and bucking the rampant trend towards digital, the new daily will have a website but is primarily a print product – an old-fashioned newspaper – at a time when the conventional wisdom is that newsprint will never again make money.
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