San Juan, Puerto Rico — A small daily newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose owner credited previous generations of literate slaves for its survival, is closing after 180 years in print.
The St. Croix Avis, which published its first edition in 1844, can no longer compete with social media and digital newspaper subscriptions, according to owner and publisher Rena Brodhurst.
“That is an impossible mission that we cannot fulfill,” she said in a statement released Sunday.
It was not immediately clear when the paper would stop publishing, although Brodhurst said the company would soon use up its last load of newsprint.
'I thank the Moravian Church who insisted that the slaves learn to read, write and understand. The St. Croix Avis would never have been possible without that concept of ensuring a literate black population,” she said.
The newspaper is based on the island of St. Croix, home to approximately 41,000 people, the majority of whom are black and of slave descent.
Slavery in the Danish West Indies was abolished in 1848.
When it was founded, St. Croix Avis published most of its content in Danish until it shifted primarily to English after the U.S. government purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.
In the years following its initial publication, the St. Croix Avis reported on multiple weather events, including an apparent hurricane that struck the neighboring island of St. Thomas in 1867. Part of the headline read: “Horrible loss of life and property!! !”
The newspaper also highlighted events such as Citizenship Day, noting that “the catching of the greased pig caused much merriment among the spectators.”
Brodhurst thanked the community for supporting St. Croix Avis in her open letter lamenting the closure.
“What an incredible journey we have had together, learning, growing, enjoying and crying together,” she wrote. “The road we have traveled together has been monumental.”