After 38 years, presses stop rolling for Visayan Daily Star

ILOILO CITY—Economic difficulties due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have driven one of the oldest newspapers in the Visayas to indefinitely stop operation.

In her column on Thursday, Ninfa Leonardia, editor in chief and president of the Bacolod City-based The Visayan Daily Star (VDS), said the 38-year-old newspaper would stop publishing but “will return and go on.”

“The long period of this COVID pandemic has deprived us of our daily sources of income to keep publishing your daily news source. Aside from that, our main supporters, our advertisers, have mostly been badly hit in their businesses, too, and are now gasping for breath themselves,” Leonardia said.

“For several months, since this all started, we struggled, until we had to finally bite the bullet and call a halt to our issues,” she said.

VDS, considered a pillar and institution in the community press in the Philippines, will stop publication after Aug. 31. At least 26 employees will lose their jobs. —NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.