‘Ta Nea’, one of the longest standing Greek newspapers, was not on the newsstands on Tuesday and is likely to close after almost one century of circulation.
The newspaper staff went on strike on Monday after completing four and a half months without pay and likely to miss another monthly salary which is the Christmas bonus. The 24-hour strike will be repeated every day from now on until management meets the employee demands to receive their August salaries and the Christmas bonus as advance payment.
Ta Nea (The News) was the flagship of the Lambrakis Press Organization (DOL), also publishing To Vima on Sunday, which is not likely to circulate on Sunday either. The organizations’ three news websites — tanea.gr, in.gr and tovima.gr — will not be renewed, while Vima FM radio station will only be playing music.
The newspaper began publishing in 1931 as Athinaika Nea (Athens News) with the first issue being released on May 28. It has been Greece’s best-selling newspaper for decades, although its circulation had been affected by news on the internet and the economic crisis.
The newspaper’s circulation reached its peak (200,000) copies in the 1990s, but by 2008 circulation dropped by more than half of its peak. In December its circulation averaged 13,000 copies, still putting it at the top of Greek dailies.
Ta Nea has been a traditional center-left friendly newspaper and has strongly supported PASOK in the 1980s and 1990s.
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