German company WAZ Mediengruppe sold its Bulgarian publishing arm, including leading dailies Trud, 24 Chasa and weekly 168 Chasa, Expatica.com reported today.

Although financial details were not disclosed, WAZ said Vienna-based BG Privateinvest GmbH had agreed to buy the two daily newspapers, seven weeklies, 10 magazines, its printing facility in Sofia and its distribution company named Stella, Novinite.com revealed.

"WAZ's decision to leave Bulgaria... comes less than six months after the German group sold its newspaper business in neighboring Serbia," Expatica.com explained.

The German media group entered the Bulgarian market in 1997, when it bought Trud and 24 Chasa, ABC.es pointed out. These newspapers have a circulation of 70,000 and 55,000 copies, respectively.

TNA Media-owned newspaper The New Age will finally hit the streets of South Africa on December 6, said editor-in-chief Henry Jeffreys, Times Live reported. The launching of the print version was postponed twice in the past three months.

"I think you can expect a newspaper that will indicate the direction that we will be taking," said Jefferys, who was recently appointed editor after the resignation of his predecessor Vuyo Mvuko, according to Eyewitnessnews.co.za. "It will be filled with quite a diverse array of news, entertainment and education."

The New Age was initially set to launch in September but it was postponed because the staff was not ready to use the newly acquired editorial software and the publisher needed time to test the new systems. Later in October, the launching was pushed back again after Mvuko and four other editors quitted, Newstime.co.za revealed.

Greek newspaper To Vima published its last daily print edition on Saturday and will only be available online from now on, other than a weekly Sunday print edition, greekreporter.com revealed.

The decision was taken due to the newspaper's declining circulation. Three years ago, the Sunday print edition had a circulation of 199,364 copies, according to the data from the Association of Owners of Athens Daily Newspapers.

To Vima explained in an editorial published on its website that "online visitors had far outnumbered newsstand buyers--selling 8,000 print issues Thursday, while receiving 82,000 online visitors," Business Week quoted.

The newspaper, which was founded in 1922 and it's owned by Lambrakis Press group, will offer "a completely new electronic" version in January.

Board members of Chilean newspaper La Nacion approved on Friday the closure of the daily's print edition due to circulation decline. The 93-year-old newspaper will be only available online, Milenio reported.

According to media reports, the last print version will circulate on November 28, Efe revealed. However, neither the publishing company nor the government, which owns 69 percent of the newspaper's shares, could confirm the date. "The newspaper will not close," said government spokeswoman Ena Von Baer to Efe. "The government's desire is to keep the newspaper. It has asked the directory that this diary is maintained in a sustainable manner that suits the new time."

However, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera had said before being elected that he wanted to sell or reform the newspaper because it had become a "propaganda machine" used by previous governments to attack their opponents. It was not until a month ago when Daniel Platovsky, president of Empresa Periodistica La Nación, finally announced the closure.