The Kitanippon Shimbun has closed its evening edition and will now publish a morning edition only, NSK News Bulletin reports.

Plans are in place to redesign its morning edition, including moving some content from the defunct evening edition to the morning one. The website will also get a makeover, adding more content and featuring the latest news ahead of the print edition.

The company's announcement of the closure focused on recent changes in the media environment and the rise of the internet as a source of news. "In particular, the business environment surrounding the publication of our evening edition is becoming increasingly harsh, and we have concluded that we can no longer best meet the diverse needs of our readers through the continued publication of an evening edition," the announcement said.

This closure does not appear to be a surprise. September figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation showed that the morning edition had a circulation of 248,636 copies, while the evening edition distributed only 31,939. Three other Japanese dailies closed their evening editions last year to go morning-only. And closures and cutbacks are not infrequent for English-language newspapers.

The per-copy price for the print edition of the Toyama Prefecture-based paper will stay the same, as will the monthly subscription price, set at 2,987 yen (US $32).

Source: NSK News Bulletin