Failing left-wing Italian newspaper suspends publication after 90 years

L'Unita, the left-wing daily founded by Antonio Gramsci, one of the fathers of Italian communism, will suspend publication today after its shareholders failed to reach agreement on future strategy, the newspaper said.

"They have killed L'Unita," the paper's front-page headline said on Wednesday. Apart from three pages devoted to the closure and a one-page advertisement for its e-bookstore, the remainder of the 20-page edition was left blank.

L'Unita, founded by Gramsci in 1924 as the official organ of the Italian Communist Party, survived the fascist era as an underground newspaper, but it has struggled since the collapse of the party in the 1990s, closing briefly in 2000 before reopening with new private shareholders.

The paper has been hit by the move of the industry to the internet as well as by the economic crisis. It built up millions of euros in debt while sales dropped to just over 20,000 copies a day.

With administrators demanding €1.6 million (HK$17 million) to guarantee the paper could continue operating until September, a shareholders' meeting on Tuesday saw three proposals rejected.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD), which retains a small stake in the newspaper, promised support, but said it was not responsible for the paper's problems.