On Sept 28, 2012 the icon of Costa Rica news, The Tico Times Newspaper announced their English-language print edition will be their last and will now focus more on their online addition.
Since its start in San José in 1956, the newspaper always had worldwide recognition in the field of journalism and had received awards for its non-bias reporting in a region that was largely marked by turmoil and controversy.
Some of their reporters broke stories on CIAs involvement with the Contras, illegal shark finning in Costa Rica, the Cartels taking over the drug trade in Costa Rica, and local affairs like, keeping on top of the border dispute with Nicaragua.
AM Costa Rica, wrote, “We mourn the end of an era for Costa Rican journalism. The Tico Times always has stood for high-quality, honest journalism. So the end of the print edition is like a death in the family. We also laud Dery Dyer, the owner of The Tico Times, for her many years of effort in guiding the newspaper. We also have great respect for her mother, who founded the newspaper, and her father, who guided it to be the English voice of Central America during the troubles in Nicaragua.”
In Tico Times online addition they wrote why the 56-year legacy had to come to an end, "It is the same epidemic wiping out newspapers and magazines throughout the world also walloped The Tico Times. And "tough economic times combined with readers moving to online media signaled forced to make due to costs of distribution, printing, paper and production."
According to Tico Times Business Manager Olman Chacón, the paper suffered from continuous lack of vision. “It was badly planned and had poor business strategies for years”
Is it so? Yes and No!
Those that have been around the paper for years saw the "start of end" of the print version years ago. As little as five years ago their paper, that numbered 60+ pages, slowly dwindled to 10-18 pages. Why?
Yes, you can put fault and blame on a lot of things, but in a nut shell, competition is the main cause of the demise of the print addition, and inability and ongoing procrastination to deal with it.
For years The Tico Times had the "Monopoly” and the attitude of being "Untouchable" as the only true English-language newspaper in the region and competion was Nada!
They never comprehended and thought they were immune to, as the Internet became more available in the region, this opened up the floodgates for English-language newspapers.
Beside the big ones like AM Costa Rica and Inside Costa Rica others like Costa Rica News Site, News CO CR, Costa Rican Times, Costa Rican News and many others, started to take away 10s of 1000s of newspaper users, which deeply cut into the subscriptions and profits of the newspaper.
If you Google, Costa Rica Newspapers in English, the results are a bit overwhelming – even the New York Times has a category on Costa Rica News.
The other problem the newspaper made, they always relied on their beginning/loyal users, who are now an older/demographic audience, one that prefers reading a physical newspaper and not that of a web savvy as the younger generation, who now seeks information from Search Engines and Social Media.
Again, going to Google, and if one is seeking information on Nightlife in San Jose, Costa Rica, the newspaper does not appear on any of the first three pages. It doesn’t even have an entertainment link, were many of their competitors have to target the younger generation.
Probably the best example of this was a year ago when I was in Jaco. When talking to a group of surfers, who have been traveling and surfing in Costa Rica for the last six years, somehow the conversation got into this ongoing border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
When I asked them if they read the recent article in The Tico Times about it, they all looked at me dumbfounded and one said, "Tico who?"
This is not the first time I got the "Tico Who?" answer.
Personally, we think that the newspaper will survive providing they focus on the future of online technology, which they seem to be doing.
In the last year they took to Social Media. With said, their Facebook page went from 650 fans to 4,360 and Twitter followers from under 100 to over 7,000 – all of this in less than a year. It’s a start, but they have a long and hard road ahead if they want to keep up with the competition.
We wish the icon of Costa Rica news the best of luck…
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