HGP Nightly News – A small payment has arrived, but for Stabroek News, the math remains brutal. The Department of Public Information on Tuesday transferred $7.4 million to the struggling newspaper, a partial payment for advertisements published way back in April 2025. The sum barely makes a dent. The outstanding debt now stands at a staggering $86.4 million.
This week’s payment breaks a long silence from DPI, but only just. Prior to Tuesday, the last money to reach the newspaper was $23.3 million on November 21, 2025, covering ads from February and March of last year. Months passed. No payments came. The debt piled higher.
Behind the numbers sits a paper trail of desperation.
Guyana Publications Inc, the company behind Stabroek News and the Sunday Stabroek, has been pleading for answers. General Manager Shaleeza Khan wrote to Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Kwame McCoy five times last year, June 18, July 15, August 8, September 30, and December 17. Each letter followed the same pattern: DPI wasn’t responding to payment requests, so Khan reached higher, hoping the minister would intervene.
Each letter was met with silence.
There has been no formal reply from Minister McCoy to any of the five letters. No meeting offered. No explanation given. No timeline for payment provided.
The context makes the silence even louder. Stabroek News announced last month that it will cease printing in mid-March 2026 and begin voluntary liquidation after 39 years of independent publishing. Chairman Brendan de Caires, in announcing the closure, pointed directly at the state’s unpaid debt as a factor, describing the withholding of advertisements from state-owned companies as “an attempt to starve this company of its operating funds.”
The $7.4 million payment, while welcome, arrives as the newspaper prepares to shut its doors. For a company fighting for survival, small installments spaced months apart don’t rescue a business, they just prolong the pain.
The Department of Public Information has offered no comment on the payment or the broader debt. Minister McCoy has not responded to requests for comment on the letters or the outstanding balance.
