No newspaper can, or should ever, herald the demise of another. After all, ‘same knife stick, sheep stick goat’.

The disappearance from print of the Sunday Herald is, perhaps, a sign of the times. Casualties from the 1990s explosion of news media outlets, especially in the electronic arena, were always on the card. That more casualties have not reached the media cemetery is itself an untold story in what is a communication media jungle out there, complicated by the equally awesome explosion of social media.

The Observer’s own surge forward, in 18 years – a mere ripple in the ocean of time – compared with a formidable competitor of almost two hundred years old, provides lessons in newspaper survival. By the time the Observer is 200 years old, Jamaicans will be referring to newspapers as ‘Observer’, even if we do say so ourself.

But one has to be realistic, or foolhardy not to, acknowledge that the Observer of 200 years old is more likely to be online, than in print. It is going to take a while yet before this happens. And it is likely that at its current pace, the Observer in print will dominate the Jamaican market before it gives way to an exclusive online existence. Internet penetration has lot of catching up to do, even with the assistance of cellphones. Readers and advertisers, therefore, will still value the long shelf life of the news, especially in tabloid form.

Financial difficulties have forced the Herald exclusively online well before the time. They have not said it but one wonders what has gone wrong with its printing arrangement with the Gleaner Company.

That, of course, was always a curiosity. The Herald was in competition, certainly with the Sunday Gleaner, as it was with the Sunday Observer. It must have swallowed a lot of spit and bit its lip hard to ask its competitor to be responsible for its printing and distribution. Yet, even that could not save the Herald in print.

The deeper analysis might well show that the direction of the weekly in recent times might have contributed to is demise. Its decided swing to party politics, while providing some sensational stories based on strategically placed leaks, would have caused readers to be wary of the sting in the tail. Readers don’t like a captive medium.

Suggestions that the newspaper was making waves in the media industry are not supported by any numbers. Even if the publication did not have access to the corporate movers and shakers, as one analyst claims, if its product was really good, its readership should ensure its survival.

In a strange way, the Herald was an example of ‘wha gaawn bad a mawnin caan come good a evenin’. It has its antecedents in Mark Ricketts’ ill-fated ideas as the Jamaica Record; that gave way to the daily Jamaica Herald; and out of those ashes finally the weekly Sunday Herald.

As the Sunday Herald, the paper had bright hopes of becoming the first successful journalist-owned publication in Jamaica, before that too evaporated. The subsequent change to political ownership marked a desperate attempt to stay alive, bereft of the dream that fired the breasts of Cliff Hughes, Franklin McKnight and Christene King, among others. It was pure opportunism. And it was bound to fail.

The rest of us had better learn to ‘tek sleep mark death’.