El Hispano newspaper
closes doors on Friday
St. Maarten--After two years of serving particularly the Latino community, local newspaper El Hispano will say farewell on Friday, as it has been forced through financial constraints and operational pitfalls to close its doors and send home some twelve employees.
General Manager of the paper’s publishing company Rudolph Baetsen told The Daily Herald it had been a very difficult decision, but ultimately the only one under the circumstances.
He explained that a variety of factors were affecting the company’s viability. Amongst them were what Baetsen termed “common problems in St. Maarten”: finding qualified workers and operational setbacks caused by the hardship employers face to obtain work permits for foreign workers.
He said El Hispano had had a very strong staff over the last two years, with whom he was happy to have worked. But with the difficulty of getting staff members’ papers renewed and the fact that there was simply not enough revenue being generated from ads, the paper had to close.
He said El Hispano had managed to create a very “nice product” during the last one and a half years. Since the announcement of its impending closure many people have called to express their sadness.
Baetsen explained that with a paper such as this, which is completely written in Spanish, it was important to have a Spanish-speaking journalist, who had to be brought in from abroad. However, the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper has been in the Dominican Republic waiting for a re-entry permit for more than two weeks.
Baetsen said the company had obtained permits for five staff members from government in the beginning, but the slow and cumbersome process to have those papers renewed was a further burden on the paper.
He said he did not mind that government was intent on protecting locals from losing opportunities for work, but there had to be a clear understanding of the need for skilled labour. When it is recognised that the required staff is not available on the island, companies must be allowed to hire abroad and have proper processing procedures that do not hamper their businesses.
St Maarten vacation rental
