Dear Editor,
As Guyanese citizens grapple with the impending closure of Stabroek News, scheduled for March 15, 2026, a surprisingly simple question arises: could citizens voluntarily contribute a portion of their GUY$100,000 cash grant to help save one of the country’s most storied newspapers?
The mathematics are striking. Sta-broek’s parent company, Guyana Publica-tions Inc. (GPI), is owed approximately GUY$84.4 million in unpaid advertising fees by the very government now distributing cash grants to citizens. To cover that shortfall, only 845 Guyanese — less than 0.12% of eligible recipients — would need to voluntarily redirect their GUY$100,000 grant to the newspaper. That is a remarkably low threshold for a nation of over 700,000 eligible adults.
Of course, practical challenges abound. No mechanism currently exists for citizens to redirect their government grant to a third party. More fundamentally, the debt is owed by the government itself, making the situation all the more troubling. And even if the GUY$84.4 million were paid in full tomorrow, Stabroek would still face the same structural headwinds confronting print media globally — declining advertising revenues, shrinking circulation, and the relentless rise of social media.
Nevertheless, the idea of a voluntary crowdfunding effort of a similar scale is not far-fetched. The threshold is low enough that a motivated community could realistically meet it. What is needed is the will — and a mechanism — to make it possible. But perhaps the more straightforward solution is the obvious one: the government should simply settle its outstanding debt to Stabroek News. A free and independent press is not a luxury. It is a cornerstone of democracy, and its loss would impoverish our public life far more than any financial ledger can measure.