From Ambassador (Sole Daily newspapre in Samoa -Visiting Samoa Observer)

Sole daily newspaper in Samoa  - Visiting Samoa Observer

On February 13th, I visited the headquarters of the Samoa Observer.
 
The company publishes the only daily newspaper in Samoa. It was founded as an independent newspaper in 1978.
 
It is one of the most important tasks of the embassy to closely follow events happening in the country and report important information to the Ministry in Tokyo, in an easy-to-understand and concise manner, with objective analysis. 
 
When compiling such reports, we rely heavily on the existence of media that reports the news objectively and accurately. And our work becomes much easier when there is a "newspaper" that reports the news in English, as in the case of Samoa.
 
The Samoa Observer sells only a small number of copies in print, about 4,000 to 5,000 copies, but it also has an online version. Many Samoans living abroad subscribe to this version of the newspaper. In fact, the largest number of subscribers to the online version are from New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, followed by subscribers in Samoa. This may be because many Samoans in Samoa mainly read printed version rather than online one, but it seems to suggest that Samoans living abroad are also interested in Samoan news and eager to follow it.
 
The company has a small editorial floor and printing facilities, and has only six reporters.
 
To be honest, I feel that it must be very difficult to cover all the news in the country with this size of the staff. Before the Covid pandemic, the size was larger, but some journalists decided to move out of the country during the pandemic. 
 
The newspaper is often exposed to political pressures and criticisms at times, but I hope that it will continue to be politically neutral and be an objective and reliable news source.