The media joint venture of Avusa Media and Pearson, BDFM announced plans to discontinue publication of its "Big News for the Business Owner" newspaper soon, according to a report by MediaUpdate.co.za yesterday.

"Closing Big News does not mean the company has lost faith in the small business market; it is just that, perhaps, under the circumstances, Big News had the odds stacked against it," BDFM managing director Mzi Malunga was quoted as saying by BizCommunity.com. "I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the hard working Big News team, especially its editor, Samantha Kalisa."

Since its launch in 1996, the South African newspaper has been providing a voice to small and medium business owners, while helping them grow their businesses and create jobs. It has also been a part of the BDFM media brands that include titles such as Business Day, the Financial Mail, Summit TV and The Home Channel, MediaUpdate.co.za reported yesterday.

Around 80,000 copies of the newspaper have been distributed monthly, BizCommunity.com reported. Malunga further added that the "details of the newspaper's winding-down process will be communicated to the rest of the business in coming weeks."

Ireland's oldest provincial newspaper, the Limerick Leader and Limerick Chronicle, have announced a review of the newspaper's printing operations in Limerick. If the proposals are implemented, the facility could be closed by mid-December and 29 people would be laid off, the Limerick Leader reported yesterday.

The staff has taken a 40 percent pay cut and opted for a three day week to keep the printing plant in operation, according to a report by RTE. The Unite trade union that represents the workers at the plant will be meeting with the management of Johnston Press, which owns the newspaper, in the coming days to explore alternative possibilities to closure or to secure a fair redundancy deal.

The company has said it will make "every effort to minimise the impact of this proposal on affected staff through, where possible, by re-deployment to alternative positions in the group," David Crow, divisional managing director of print for Johnston Press, told the Limerick Leader. "Despite the best efforts of the staff and management at Leader Print Limited, the unprecedented reductions in printing requirements across the industry has resulted in the company having to review its operations in Limerick."

German publisher Axel Springer announced it will shut down the Russian edition of Newsweek due to financial reasons, Vedomosti reported today. The issue published this week will be the last one, Dni.ru added.

Valerii Fadeev, editor-in-chief of Russian magazine Ekspert, pointed out that Russian Newsweek wasn't economically viable since it failed to gather a large enough audience; meaning that sales figures were not sufficient to upkeep the "obligatory flow of ads," Vedomosti stated. However, Russian Newsweek's Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Fishman (left) told RSN that there was no need to shut down the magazine because the problems the publisher referred to could have been overcome.

Image: RSN

"I think that [economic difficulties] were a temporary feature, and all the losses could have been solved next year, but the published made a different decision," Fishman said." I understood, in what economic situation the magazine was, but I didn't see any serious, insurmountable problems."

The Alpha Newspaper Group, which is the largest weekly publisher in Northern Ireland, on Monday closed the Roscommon Champion, the Longford News and the Athlone Voice, the BBC reported.

The company said the decision was taken after a severe decline of circulation and advertising revenue, RTE.ie informed. In recent months, several staff members were laid off and the design and layout departments were centralized to reduce costs.

In a statement partially reproduced by The Irish Times, the workers of the Roscommon Champion said they were "traumatized" by the news.

"These are difficult economic times and the staff understood the need to introduce efficiencies. However, no newspaper with foundations stretching back more than eighty years should have been allowed to close its doors," the staff said.

The secretary of the National Union of Journalists Seamus Dooley criticized the closures because they represent "a blow to media diversity as well as a significant blow to the economy of the Midlands," The Irish Times quoted.

He also accused the company of being "fully aware" of the market situation and the newspaper competition in the region when it launched the Athlone Voice in 2003, the BBC reminded.