Hariri’s newspaper drops off Lebanese stands

BEIRUT: Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal issued its last print version after 20 years on Thursday, it said, the latest victim of the country’s media crisis.

Established by late billionaire premier Rafik Hariri, Al-Mustaqbal is affiliated to his son Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Current party. "Al-Mustaqbal folds up its last pages today," said an editorial on the front page of the newspaper, whose name means "Future" in Arabic.

"On February 14, 2019, it relaunches digitally." For two decades, Al-Mustaqbal recorded key events of the multi-confessional country’s history, including the 2005 assassination of its founder in a bombing. In the years after the Muslim politician’s killing, the newspaper became a platform for the Future Current party launched in 2007, as it faced rivals including the movement Hizbullah.

On Thursday, Al-Mustaqbal editor-in-chief Hani Hammoud wrote that his newspaper was struggling to adapt to the digital era.

"In 20 years, a generation of readers has turned into consumers who feel that 120 characters... is enough for them to know," he wrote. "The daily battle of editors at Al-Mustaqbal... has become to find a headline that doesn’t make the reader feel like they already saw it the previous night on their smartphone."

The newspaper suffered a financial crisis in 2015, prompting the dismissal of employees and a delay in payment of salaries, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says. Al-Mustaqbal is only the latest in a string of Lebanese newspapers to call it quits.