** Update: An-Nahar Editor-in-Chief Nayla Tueni confirmed  in a press conference that the blank edition of the newspaper comes as a form of protest of the current political situation in Lebanon.

On Thursday morning, many Lebanese woke up in the morning to be surprised at the look of the An-Nahar newspaper; the print edition was all blank with white pages. The news website and the social media accounts of An-Nahar were all blank, without any explanation.

Shortly after, it editor-in-chief announced a press conference to be held on the same day to explain.

Social media users went to share images and screenshots of the blank pages wondering about the reason behind such a move.

Some said it might be related to the current political crisis in Lebanon which made the newspaper go blank as they did not have much space to discuss it!

Translation: “The most honest and trustworthy edition of An-Nahar.”

Others suggested the move might have been made to raise awareness about the crisis faced by many print newspapers as the industry is facing a dramatic decline and especially as many prominent print newspapers around the world dropped their print edition.

Translation: “With its white blank pages, An-Nahar delivers 100 messages. Is it the start of new era or giving up...the end of printed newspapers?”