After 180 Years, Small Daily In The U.S. Virgin Islands Closes

A small daily newspaper in the US Virgin Islands, whose owner credited past generations of literate slaves for its survival, is closing after 180 years in print, as reported by the Associated Press (AP).

The St. Croix Avis, which published its first edition in 1844, can no longer compete with social media and digital newspaper subscription services. I Photo: U.S. Library of Congress

The St. Croix Avis, which published its first edition in 1844, can no longer compete with social media and digital newspaper subscription services, according to owner and publisher Rena Brodhurst.

"That is an impossible mission we are unable to fulfill,” she said in a published statement.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the paper would stop publishing, although Brodhurst said the company would soon exhaust its final shipment of newsprint.

“I give thanks to the Moravian Church that insisted the enslaved learn to read, write, and comprehend. The St. Croix Avis would never have been possible without that concept of ensuring a literate Black population,” she said.

The paper is based on the island of St. Croix, home to some 41,000 people, the majority of them Black of slave descent. Slavery in the Danish West Indies was abolished in 1848.

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