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The Tico Times had a long standing tradition here in Costa Rica. At one point they were regarded as a pillar of English language media for many decades. However, The Tico Times is not the oldest English language newspaper in Costa Rica, that honour goes to “The News” founded in 1897. We know how The Tico Times likes to claim they are the oldest, but that is simply not true. With the end of their print newspaper publication, marks the beginning of a new era, or late adoption of a global trend happening in all countries, depending on how you look at it.
If you read the article that was published on their website yesterday, you will get a sense that the people managing The Tico Times are somewhat bitter at the need to make this drastic decision, though it has been blatantly obvious over the last few years that the newspaper is getting thinner and containing less useful information. A reader of The Costa Rica Star mentioned that they liked The Tico Times for the crossword puzzles, but other then that, it was a mystery how the print publication survived until 2012.
Here at The Costa Rica Star we have not been around for that long, launching in December of 2010 and quickly gaining international attention with our original content and creative publishing strategy. Somewhat like a Central American micro-version of The Huffington Post. From day one our strategy has been smart phone content optimization focusing on reasonable quality hand picked news topics 7 days per week, not trying to play copy cat and publish what everyone else is publishing in Costa Rica. We consider ourselves to be a “discovery platform” meaning that we do not reinvent the wheel, but take the best of global news media related to Costa Rica and Central America, filter it down, and ensure it hits the homepage of The Costa Rica Star in one format or another.
In the past The Costa Rica Star reached out to The Tico Times via email multiple times to try and create communication channels that would lead to us working together positively. However, these emails were never returned, which makes us feel less sorry for the fact that The Tico Times is down-sizing their infrastructure and may soon become obsolete. Media businesses have to be willing to at least listen to what others have to say in the same industry, keeping a closed ear and mind leads to isolating your business. Standing alone in the digital publishing of news media is never a good strategy , even if The Costa Rica Star is the new kid on the block.
If you look at the homepage of Nacion.com or CRHoy.com, they contain news from a Reuters, Associated Press, or a similar wire feeds. This is the concept of taking your original content, and augmenting it with the information provided elsewhere, to ensure your readers get a sound experience consuming your news publication online. It is our mission to publish all articles as unique original content, written by in house staff writers. Sourcing topics and content using our social media channels is very important and often proves more timely then traditional data gathering techniques.
In the last month another top leading English news media website in Costa Rica (InsideCostaRica.com) was acquired, whose writings have often been seen in publications like the New York Times. Inside Costa Rica will be taken far away from its publishing past. Near the end of the article that was published yesterday by The Tico Times they mentioned that competing media websites in Costa Rica plagiarize content, which may have been true in the past, but shows how disconnected and uneducated the management is with day to day operations. The new Inside Costa Rica is nothing like we have ever seen before, and all of us at The Costa Rica Star consider ICR to be the most likely to take the crown for top English news publication covering Costa Rica in the near future.
If anything can be learned from what is happening at The Tico Times it is that change is the only constant in life (and business).
If you run a business for many decades doing it the same way, while the industry changes around you, eventually you will fail. Every day on the internet a new technology or publishing method is created, not all of them are necessary to use right away, but you have to be aware of the coming tide and make calculated timely changes to stay afloat. In the not to distant future, with the rise of smart phone usage in Costa Rica, we may even see Nacion.com publishing only digital.
We welcome your thoughts, comments, and opinions using the comment feature below. All the best to The Tico Times and their digital publishing strategy moving forward.
