MEDIA WATCH: Another print publication dies

THE BRITISH newspaper The Independent, whose sales have collapsed in recent years, appeared on newsstands for the last time on Saturday March 26.

The publication, was founded in 1986 under the slogan “It is. Are you?”.  Now  it  will be  exclusively digital

Employees on  Friday night put the newspaper too bed for  the last time his newspaper,  and then posted  photos on social networks of their teams banging hands on desks , a tradition marking  the death  of a colleague.

In its last printed edition The Independent says people will remember their “bold transition” to 100% digital format as an “example for other newspapers around the world.”

“Today the presses stopped, the ink is dry and  the paper will soon crinkle no more …  (…) A chapter closes but another opens, and the spirit of The Independent will continue to flourish,” It said: “Today the presses have stopped, the ink is dry and the paper will soon crinkle no more. But as one chapter closes, another opens, and the spirit of The Independent will flourish still.

“Our work goes on, our mission endures, the war still rages, and the dream of our founders shall never die.”

It is  the first national newspaper to disappear from the British kiosks from since  1995.

The owner of the newspaper, Evgeny Lebedev of Russian origin who announced last month the abandonment of the print edition, wrote that journalism “has been completely transformed,” so The Independent “also had to change.”

It said: “Today the presses have stopped, the ink is dry and the paper will soon crinkle no more. But as one chapter closes, another opens, and the spirit of The Independent will flourish still.

“Our work goes on, our mission endures, the war still rages, and the dream of our founders shall never die.”

Like many newspapers, The Independent, born in 1986 had to face the precipitous decline of readership of its print edition.

At the end the national daily sold about 40,000 copies

At its peak, in 1989, the center-left daily, was selling  more than 420,000 copies daily.

In 2003, it carried out a bloody campaign against British intervention in Iraq alongside the United States, like the other center-left daily, The Guardian.

In an editorial, the Guardian paid  tribute to The Independent, calling it a “truly exceptional day,” noting that the advertising market  has suffered deep changes in recent years, with a shift in revenue to sites like Facebook.

The Independent is the first major British national newspaper moving  to a digital-only daily  edition, already taken by the Spanish newspaper Público and the  French La Tribune

The group that owns The Independent, Esi Media, will sell its popular shortened version, called “i”, the Johnston Press group.

The Sale is expected to generate about 25 million pounds (32 million euros), a sum to be invested on its website.

The  site, which attracts about 70 million visitors per month, is already profitable and expects an increase in revenue of around 50% this year.