The radical downsizing at El Carabobeño, which is one of the few independent news outlets in Valencia willing to criticize government officials, mirrors the crisis at regional newspapers across Venezuela.
The following is an excerpt of a 27 December 2017 CPJ Blog post by John Otis, CPJ Andes Correspondent.
The lobby of El Carabobeño includes a display of vintage cameras, engraving plates and paper cutters from the 1930s when the newspaper was founded in Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. But now El Carabobeño’s modern printing press could be added to the exhibit.
Amid a nationwide newsprint shortage that Venezuelan journalists blame widely on President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian government, El Carabobeño published its last print edition in February. Although it continues to publish online, the newspaper has lost nearly all of its advertising, has cut staff down to the bone, and is fighting for survival, said editor Carolina González.
“I am very angry about what’s happened,” González said in an interview at the largely empty three-story building that houses El Carabobeño. “But we’re still here.”
The radical downsizing at El Carabobeño, which is one of the few independent news outlets in Valencia willing to criticize government officials, mirrors the crisis at regional newspapers across Venezuela.
