The Star of Mysore, an evening tabloid newspaper from Mysuru, has announced that it will temporarily stop producing the print edition of the newspaper, citing issues related to the paper's production and circulation.
Star of Mysore had put a statement to this effect in their Sunday evening edition of the newspaper. “A time comes when every industry has to face unpredictable circumstances making its production management difficult. Such a time has come for Star of Mysore now because of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Star of Mysore is a unique newspaper in India, both in its size as a tabloid and also as the only home-delivered evening English newspaper. For a good 43 years, it. has been an iconic newspaper of Mysuru city. Now, this COVID-19 lock-down has led to insurmountable challenges from management of Star of Mysore has decided to temporarily stop the print edition of Star of Mysore from Monday, April 13 2020 until the present situation favourably unfolds. However, we will continue to serve our readers online,” the notice read.
Under fire for a unempathetic editorial—and under pressure because of the #Coronavirus lockdown—India’s most successful English evening newspaper ‘Star of Mysore’ temporarily suspends publication, for the first time in 43 years. #StarOfMysore pic.twitter.com/hW8Ft4D1Zw
— churumuri (@churumuri) April 12, 2020
This is the first time that the newspaper has taken such a step, since being in the newspaper business for 43 years.
The problem of sourcing newsprint is not restricted to Star of Mysore alone. Many newspapers including Deccan Herald are printing their editions without the supplementary pages, and have reduced the number of pages being printed every day. The newspaper printed in Mysuru is an evening newspaper. Vikram Muthanna said that their newspaper agents don't show up to pick up the newspapers. “Many newspapers are left behind because of the restrictions in the city. But we hope to get back in production once the lockdown is lifted,” he said.
He added that they are having issues with advertisements, another problem faced by many other newspapers in the country.
The newspaper was recently in the news for publishing an objectionable editorial, which alluded to an ‘annoying 18 percent’ of the population which we need to ‘get rid’ of.
With inputs from Prajwal Bhat