Times to shut 5 Usha Kirana editions

Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL), the publisher of The Times of India plans to close down five unprofitable editions of Usha Kirana outside Bangalore from September 17.

It will, however, continue to run the remaining four editions, including Bangalore, for one more month.

The group had recently acquired two Kannada newspapers, Vijaya Karnataka and Usha Kirana, and one English newspaper, Vijay Times, published by Vijayanand Printers Ltd.

The editions to be closed down are Gulbarga, Gangavati, Bagalkot, Chitradurga and Shimoga. The employees were reportedly informed verbally by the editor of the paper, Venkatnarayan, on Tuesday evening. However, no official confirmation was available.

Sources in the group said, "We will not close down the newspaper but rationalise the structure by bringing down the number of editions. We are not a charitable organisation and will not publish from where we are suffering losses. It is running up huge losses and we wish to bring down the losses."

Usha Kirana was launched in March 2005. Its circulation had hit a peak of one lakh a day. Its present circulation is around 75,000.