FTD business daily folding

FTD owners Gruner + Jahr (G+J) said the closure of the Financial Times Deutschland daily newspaper was part of an effort to limit losses in the publisher's business section, which would also included selling off business magazines "Impulse" and "Börse Online."

In addition, the flagship magazine "Capital" would be continued with less staff, G+J's executive board member Julia Jäkel told a news conference Friday.

Jäkel also said that the portfolio reductions would make 314 workers, most of them journalists, redundant, and close an important chapter of German publishing history.

Launched as a joint venture with British Financial Times publisher Pearson in 2000, FTD shook up the German newspaper market with a modern design and international perspective. Salmon pink like its British namesake, the German Financial Times, however, never made a profit.

In 2008, G+J made a final attempt at shoring up the struggling business daily as it bought out Pearson's 50 percent stake and realigned operations in Hamburg. However, last year FTD continued its streak of fiscal shortcomings, booking a loss of 10 million euros ($12.8 million) on a circulation of about 100,000.

"In spite of major cost reductions, revenues have never been high enough to make up for falling advertisement income," said Julia Jäkel.

German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, which owns G+J publishers, is said to have earmarked 40 million euros in closure costs. The figure adds to FTD's accumulated losses of 250 million euros since 2000.

uhe/dr (Reuters, dpa)