Orkney weekly paper to close

Orkney Today , a weekly paper launched seven years ago, is to close in December. The publisher, Orkney Media Group (OMG), announced the closure in a posting on the paper's website , explaining that it was due to falling advertising and circulation revenue. It said: "The company has reluctantly concluded that the newspaper is non-viable following unsustainable drops in advertising revenue and circulation over a number of years." Orkney Today was launched in October 2003 by a local businessman and taken over by OMG in 2007, which already published the 150-year-old rival title, The Orcadian . Orkney Today's sale averaged 4,797 during the first half of the year, down by 9.7% on the previous year. The Orcadian fared better with a weekly sale of 9,297, down 2.5% year on year. Sources: holdthefrontpage / Press Gazette