The Indian Express group is learnt to have decided to 'suspend' its eight-year-old Nagpur edition on account of it not being 'financially viable' from December 1.
A three-member team from the group, comprising the executive editor of the daily, Rajkamal Jha, chief general manager Sanjay Pawar and general manager (personnel), Sunil Jha, disclosed this to the local staff of the newspaper on Friday afternoon.
Though the Nagpur edition will cease to be published, the Mumbai edition of the daily will be printed here, sources said. A handful of computer operators will download the Mumbai edition of the newspaper and print here for local circulation.
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A small bureau of a few journalists may also be maintained at Nagpur. The Marathi newspaper of the group, Loksatta will also continue to be published from here.
The newsroom staff of Indian Express, Nagpur, numbering around 18, has been given various options of shifting to other centres of the newspaper mainly New Delhi and Chandigarh. The staff has been told to give preferences within a week's time.
"There will be no retrenchment of staff," claimed a senior manager with the newspaper. Though expected from some time, the news came as a shock for the daily's staffers.
They said it would be extremely difficult to shift at such a short notice especially on account of school sessions of children. The Indian Express had launched its Nagpur edition on September 28, 1992.