Sad "NEWS"

[Eagle Beach Boy]

Amigoe.com/english
The News bankrupt after 58 years
18 Nov, 2009, 07:30 (GMT -04:00)


The office of the free English newspaper The News has been closed since two weeks. The court had pronounced an adjudication order at the beginning of this week.
ORANJESTAD — The court had declared the bankruptcy of the English newspaper The News last Monday. A few employees of the newspaper had filed the petition in bankruptcy, as they had not received a large part of their salary for September and October. The bank accounts had been ‘blocked’ by the bank so that the newspaper had not been able to fulfill its obligations. The judge had rejected a request for postponement from the lawyers of the family business.
A loyal reader had given the following comment on hearing the news of the bankruptcy of the newspaper: “No News is bad news.” The court had immediately appointed a curator on Monday to liquidate the property of the bankrupt company and come up with an apportionment amongst the creditors. According to journalist and photographer Rosalie Klein, a former employee and one of the bankruptcy petitioners, the downfall of the newspaper was not only due to financial hard times. “Of course, this had played a role, but personal circumstances of the owners and the lack of management had also contributed to the downfall of the newspaper,” said Klein. The last straw had been the blocking of the newspaper’s bank accounts by Aruba Bank due to mortgage payments in arrears, according to the journalist. Moreover, the company supposedly also had tax problems. The company could no longer fulfill their obligations, amongst which the personnel salaries, after the accounts had been blocked.
The newspaper had been popular with tourists. Gerardus Schouten and his wife Bernadette Schouten-Blanchard had established the newspaper in 1951. Schouten had originally come to the island with his wife to work at the Lago refinery. ‘During strikes, he had started printing a newsletter to keep the employees informed of all developments.’
Even though The Lago Colony had published a small internal paper named the Esso Times, The News is considered as the island’s first English newspaper, Rosalie Klein explains. The newspaper had also been the first Aruban daily paper that became a member of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), an international press organization.
By one’s own account, the newspaper had also been the first daily paper to be printed in color. After Sonia Wever-Schouten had become general director, the newspaper had been the first – and for a long time – the only one that had been published on Sundays.

[Andrea J.]

my husband LOVED that news paper.

sorry to margaret wever one of our forum members.........owner and publisher of THE NEWS

sad news indeed

[fattypatty]

bummer....

[Eagle Beach Boy]

I hope Margaret Wever will be able to get the "NEWS" up and running again someday.
I looked forward to reading it as it contained 'news' not ads for local businesses.
Every evening the security guards would come by our room and drop off the paper for me.

[cindyo]

I am so sad to hear of this "News". I know Rosalie personally and feel terribly bad for her. I only know Margaret thru this site, but I believe she did a wonderful job with that newspaper. Rosalie, if you read this, please know our thoughts are with you. If there is anything we can do, please let us know. Yes, it is very sad news.
Cindy O and Rob O