Factors Influencing the Demise of Private Newspapers in Rwanda

Despite a significant increase of factors that might have been favoring the viability of newspapers in Rwanda, private newspapers have been massively declining and dying out all along their history whereas other types of media were increasing in number. The present study aims at establishing the causes that might have been behind that massive demise of private newspapers. Participants to the research were conveniently selected from 63 private newspapers that closed after 2000. The findings have shown that the demise of Rwandan private newspapers is due to both internal and external issues. Poor planning and management in media sector have been pointed out as the biggest motives of the constant death of newspapers in Rwanda among others. The culture that doesn?t too much favor reading, the emergence of digital journalism and inadequate infrastructure to streamline affordable production and easy distribution were also evoked as hindrance to newspapers? viability.