Crain’s Manchester Business has closed less than three years after the local weekly business newspaper launched.
US parent company Crain Communications said that despite circulation of around 11,500 a week the title had been unable to generate sufficient interest from local advertisers.
The last issue of the paper was published yesterday, a statement published on the title’s website confirmed today. It is not yet clear whether there will be job losses.
‘Ultimately the limited support from key advertising sectors has made the project unsustainable,’said Chris Crain, senior vice president, Crain Communications and editor-in-chief, Crain’s Manchester Business.
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Crain’s Manchester Business, the first European newspaper for Crain Communications, was set up in August 2007 and based on its successful US weekly business publication model.
A team of nine journalists, led by editor Steve Brauner formerly of the North West Evening Mail, launched the first print issue of the paper and its accompanying website four months later in December, 2007.
The paper hit the ground running when its first major scoop revealed, in January 2008, that the boss of a Salford gallery was paid more than the governor of the Bank of England.
Chris Crain said today that Brauner had managed to create a ‘highly useful product that was met with great excitement from the Greater Manchester business community’which ‘captured the must-know news and information for the coming business week”.
Despite this, the regional business title failed to replicate the success of similar titles run by Crain in cities in the US.
The closure of the Manchester weekly follows Crain Communications’ closure of Business Insurance Europe, its London-based title, in March last year.
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