Newspaper owned by Lebanon's Hariri prints last edition
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BEIRUT - Readers of the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal leafed through its last print edition on Thursday, its move online underscoring the challenges ailing Lebanon's press industry.
Al-Mustaqbal, the fourth prominent newspaper to disappear from Lebanon's newsstands in recent years, is owned by caretaker prime minister Saad al-Hariri and echoes his political line.
It was established by his late father Rafik, a two-time prime minister who was assassinated in 2005, and shares the name of the Hariri political movement.
Editor-in-chief Bassam Nounou said it had fallen victim to both the wider problems of lower advertising revenue and competition with social media faced by news outlets globally, and to the financial woes of its parent organisation.
"There's a crisis in print journalism," he said, saying the newspaper hoped to reduce costs while maintaining its quality as it switched to being available solely online.
