What Happened to Panama Star?

Perhaps you used to read the Panama Star newspaper; it was definitely a great source of local information in English. But, then, all of a sudden it disappeared, and you were unable to find it anywhere. Well, the physical paper may no longer exist, but the writers and the concept continue to live. The difference is that they are now virtual, online at www.newsroompanama.com ! David Young, the editor of the new online news site, was also at the helm when it was known as Panama Star. According to David, “The Panama Star was “hidden” in Estrella and sufficient effort was not put into marketing it to the English-speaking community. For example, ads promoting it were run on Spanish TV and in Estrella. So, because they were unable to attract advertising revenue, they decided to fold the publication.”  After they stopped printing, the team had numerous discussions about the possibility of launching a weekly or bi-weekly magazine, similar in style and format to Time or Newsweek. Instead, they decided that it would be best to build a readership and advertising base to find out what readers were looking for before going to actual print.

In order to accomplish this, they started the site with one or two news stories per day. This quickly grew to four or five per day along with features and contributors such as Dr.Ulloa, among others. David states that there are still challenges with an online newspaper; however, it would appear there is also more flexibility. Deadlines are not fixed, and there is always the opportunity to drop in fresh news events at any time of the day or night. David's team creates their own deadline by making sure that there are always new stories to go out on their overnight email to subscribers. They assure their subscribers that when they wake up in the morning, there will be fresh news! 

David, it appears, has been a writer for most of his life. Already he has had five books published and has produced numerous television documentaries. Today he continues writing not only for the online newspaper, but he is also currently working on two more books. “When I can fit them in,” he says.  Born in Wales, he also served time in the Royal Navy and later military intelligence.  “Not always an oxymoron,” he states. He spent much time working in broadcasting for the BBC and on newspapers and magazines in Britain, France, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Canada. David has also headed up international PR companies in Europe and North America. 

When asked what he enjoys the most about his current job, David says that he likes writing his own material. “Working for an online newspaper is not very different from a print one,” he says, “except that with online there is not as much freedom to do interesting layouts. When I was publishing magazines or a daily newspaper, I really enjoyed the challenge of creating appealing pages. These days most layouts are preset by designers, giving little chance to be really expressive.”

Newsroompanama.com is associated with many local people. They currently provide the morning news for Cool Radio 89.3, and on Friday mornings on the same station, they provide an Upcoming Events section. They are closely connected with the American Society as well as the Canadian Society of which David Young is the VP. They also have a relationship with Global Vision Canada and are working on a book for them to coincide with the Group of 20 meeting in Ottawa, Canada, in June. 

Now that you know where to find Panama Star, be sure to visit www.newsroompanama.com to see all of the news you may have been missing from Panama and the world.