Several people from Assafir confirmed the rumors we all heard last week about a possible closure of the newspaper. Sanaa Khoury, a journalist in Assafir, was among the firsts who announced it on twitter.
Assafir has been in print for 42 years now and was among the leading newspapers in Lebanon, so it’s definitely odd to see it closing down with its employees getting laid off. But then again, it’s only logical for the publishers to halt their operations if there’s not enough revenue.
Throughout my teenage years I got used to reading Annahar as it was my parents favorite, but that was up till 2005 when Gebran Tueini was assasinated and they then switched to buying Assafir. And although I personally enjoy flipping through the physical copy, I never felt the need to subscribe to a newspaper when I got married and moved out in 2011, mainly because I was staying up to date with news through the available news websites and feed readers.
This actually brings me to a related news on ministers Sejaan Azzi and Ramzi Jreige calling for support to media outlets suffering from financial difficulties. Times are changing, and any support a newspaper will be getting is going to be temporary in my opinion if people simply don’t feel like buying a physical copy anymore, just like stone tablets were abandoned for documentation hundreds of years ago. Moreover, the closure of a newspaper will not affect the culture in Lebanon if journalists kept expressing their opinions online because it’s the content that matter and not the medium. Publishers should simply adapt to the changing news consumption habits and act accordingly, and if the government feels like being nice then it should probably consider helping the laid off employees.
Photo via Al Arabiya
Update:
It was reported today that Assafir got some financial support and will keep publishing at least for the next few months. A press conference will be held by the management on Wednesday to talk about the issue with the public.
