Newsprint Shortage Causes State of Emergency for Venezuelan Newspaper El Universal

By: Diego Cruz | Knight Center

Venezuelan newspaper El Universal declared itself in a state of emergency on Monday May 5 due to a lack of newsprint, saying their current inventory would allow them to publish for two more weeks at the most, according to a statement by the paper. El Universal will need to cut down its print edition to two sections of eight pages each, with the rest of the content published online.

Since August 2012, the country’s currency exchange system started preventing newspapers from importing newsprint without currency provided by the government, an action that now threatens the survival of Venezuelan news media who are not receiving these currencies and has resulted in the closure of more than a dozen newspapers.