U.S. publisher Cox Newspapers will close its Washington, D.C., bureau in April, as well as five foreign bureaux, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The D.C. office has provided 17 daily Cox newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Austin American-Statesman, with national and international news. Cox also owns 26 weekly newspapers.

Cox's Washington bureau opened in 1974, and its closure will affect about 24 employees, most of whom the newspaper company will offer severance packages, according to the AP.

Because Cox is planning to sell its Texas, North Carolina and Colorado newspapers, the company has less need for its office in Washington, as it supplements reporters' work at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said Andy Alexander, Washington bureau chief, the AP reported.