The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico's Pulitzer Prize-winning English-language newspaper, has closed. Founded in 1959, The Star was the island's sole English-language daily. The newspaper, which once employed Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy as its managing editor, had 120 employees.
The Star had been losing money for years, but the situation worsened with a recession in Puerto Rico and the broader decline in newspaper readership and advertising.
The Star was the setting for The Rum Diary, a novel by Hunter S. Thompson. The film version starring Johnny Depp is to be released in 2009.
I am very sorry to hear this, although the quality of the newspaper had seriously declined in recent years. Nonethless is was a beacon for non Spanish speaking friends of the island.
ReplyDeleteI knew things were sliding when they published a piece on the lechoneras of Guavate that had been written by and syndicated from a New York Times gringa.And there was far too much mainland pop culture garbage being featured.
Still, the paper helped me get aquainted with and island and people I love. RIP SJS....