Next Media confirms to cease publication of Sudden Weekly

Sudden Weekly (忽然1周) , a weekly gossip magazine founded by Jimmy Lai's Next Media Limited, has confirmed it will cease publishing after 20 years.The final edition will be published on 7 August.But the casualties don't stop here, from 16 August, two of its supplements, Eat & Travel Weekly and me!, will be merged in one edition with Next Media's flagship weekly news publication Next Magazine.Around 70 employees will be affected by the closure.Chiu Wai-kin, CEO of Sudden Weekly Bundle, confirmed the news on Monday evening, Apple Daily, the flagship newspaper of Next Media, saying the company recorded "significant profit" a year ago; its financial losses did not surface until this year amid shrinkage in the advertising market.Sudden Weekly's rate of print circulation declined by 31.4% last year, down to 419,0001 from 611,0001 in 2013.Meanwhile, average weekly sales fell by 19.3% during the second half of 2014 to 77,588 copies, compared with 96,1142 copies YOY, according to Next Media annual report 2014-15.The news comes a week after the closure of Sing Pao, one of the city's oldest Chinese-language newspapers, halted its print version due to financial difficulties.A week ago, the 56-year-old local newspaper Hong Kong Daily News also closed citing financial losses.