Source: AFP, New Delhi
The National Herald daily, launched by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is to close after the ruling Congress Party decided it was no longer viable, officials said yesterday.
The newspaper, first published from the northern city of Lucknow in 1938, played a prominent role promoting nationalist sentiment before India's independence from Britain in 1947.
History relates that Nehru was so attached to the project he vowed "not (to) let the National Herald close down even if I have to sell Anand Bhavan," his ancestral home in the northern city of Allahabad.
But dogged by bad management, poor circulation and falling revenue, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehru's grandson Rajiv, has called time on the historic paper, a senior journalist and a Congress official said.
"It is Sonia Gandhi who has taken this decision," Saud Akhtar, a journalist and head of the employees' union, told AFP.
Gandhi is chief patron of the trust that runs the publication.
Dismal circulation and recurring losses forced the decision, added a senior Congress leader, who declined to be named.
"The staff were told about the closure on January 16. They have all agreed -- it was by mutual agreement. The closure terms have almost been finalised, Akhtar said.
"We will hopefully be signing the (severance) agreement this week."
He refused to confirm reports of a 400-million-rupee (10-million-dollar) severance package for the 265 staff of the Herald and the Urdu edition Quami Awaz.
The Herald's "true role was during the independence," said B.G. Verghese, a journalist and information advisor to Nehru's daughter and late prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The Herald's current editor-in-chief T.V. Venkitachalam said it had not followed other Indian publications into the modern media age of infotainment.
The National Herald daily, launched by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is to close after the ruling Congress Party decided it was no longer viable, officials said yesterday.
The newspaper, first published from the northern city of Lucknow in 1938, played a prominent role promoting nationalist sentiment before India's independence from Britain in 1947.
History relates that Nehru was so attached to the project he vowed "not (to) let the National Herald close down even if I have to sell Anand Bhavan," his ancestral home in the northern city of Allahabad.
But dogged by bad management, poor circulation and falling revenue, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehru's grandson Rajiv, has called time on the historic paper, a senior journalist and a Congress official said.
"It is Sonia Gandhi who has taken this decision," Saud Akhtar, a journalist and head of the employees' union, told AFP.
Gandhi is chief patron of the trust that runs the publication.
Dismal circulation and recurring losses forced the decision, added a senior Congress leader, who declined to be named.
"The staff were told about the closure on January 16. They have all agreed -- it was by mutual agreement. The closure terms have almost been finalised, Akhtar said.
"We will hopefully be signing the (severance) agreement this week."
He refused to confirm reports of a 400-million-rupee (10-million-dollar) severance package for the 265 staff of the Herald and the Urdu edition Quami Awaz.
The Herald's "true role was during the independence," said B.G. Verghese, a journalist and information advisor to Nehru's daughter and late prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The Herald's current editor-in-chief T.V. Venkitachalam said it had not followed other Indian publications into the modern media age of infotainment.
