MAURITANIA, February 3, 2009 (MENASSAT) - In a country that boasted over 400 publications on its newsstands only a few weeks ago, it's clear a major media recession has taken its toll.  Mauritania's population of 3.3 million is now seeing empty newsstands as newspapers are being forced to limit their publishing to the web to remain financially solvent.

Most point to the change in Mauritania's political situation, and attribute the recession to the events of August 6 2008, when then president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was ousted in a bloodless coup by his chief of staff, current president General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz.

After the coup, industry insiders say the political changes created confusion with Mauritania's newspaper industry. Editors were no longer allying themselves with specific political parties for financial protection as had been the custom in past history.

What is clear is that conventional income streams like newspaper subscriptions and ad-revenues are virtually non-existent now.

Papers forced to the web

Most publications are not easily accessible outside of the capital city of Nouakchott, and newspaper stands are completely absent in the rest of Mauritana as publications have been unable to meet their marketing needs.

Major papers that were affected by the crisis include Al-Safir which appears five times per week in print, but is published daily online.  Al-Haqaiq weekly, now only appears online.

Al-Alem (The Flag) newspaper was forced to stop publishing and recently declared a “holiday period,” although their daily newspaper is still being updated online.

Mohammad Mahmoud Ould Bakkar, the publishing manager of the Al-Alem, told MENASSAT that the paper's financial woes were also related to the government's decades-old printing monopoly.

The government has for years failed to assign equal printing deals with the national printing house, which is the sole printing press in Mauritania.

In late 2008, the Higher Authority for Press and Audiovisuals chose 30 newspapers to benefit from low printing costs at the national printing house - excluding papers that were not editorially in-line with the prevailing political leadership.

Bakkar said Al-Alem, which is editorially independent, had been cut off from printing since the change in government.  “Al-Alem was one of the papers that stood against the coup, which cost us dearly in the end.”

But Bakkar maintains that Mauritania's newspaper industry began its financial decline before the 2008 coup.  During the political transition following the 2005 coup that ousted president Maaouiya Ould Taya, "Coup leader Ely Ould Mohamed Vall's government began ignoring newspapers and our needs, and we were no longer considered necessary," Bakkar said.

Government monopolizes ads

Another Tunisian daily that was forced to publish weekly due to the recession was Al-Fajer (The Dawn).

Habib Allah Ould Ahmad, editor-in-chief of Al-Fajer told MENASSAT that the newspaper recession was caused by two factors. The first was the government’s attempt “to drain press resources,” through its monopoly on advertisements.

Ads are the main source of funding for the press, but they are gained by what Ahmad says are “unprofessional and unethical standards, or through acquaintances for a certain price.”

The second factor for the recession, he says, is the political climate newspapers must operate in. "Where we must constantly wait for political changes to take affect. Take the recent coup. With the transition period, our business has come to a standstill.”

Sidi Mohammad Ould Ab, editor-in-chief of the weekly “al-Badil al-Thaleth” said that the lack of funding has also caused a homogenization of content. His paper has been forced to publish only 4 times a week because of the recession.

“The general situation is difficult. The newspapers we have are weak and operate off the efforts of online publications, which makes all the newspapers similar in content. It is enough to buy one to know what is in the others.”

Meanwhile, Mauritania's entire newspaper industry is gearing up for the Mauritanian elections that are scheduled for June 6 of this year, a date promised by General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz and the coup leaders in August 2008.