Iran's Version of the Sun Newspaper Folds in Just Six Months

Millions of pounds in government aid and an editorial brief to act as cheerleader for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have ensured Iran's version of the Sun a bright future.

But the economic crisis sending a chill through newsrooms across the world has driven the downmarket daily to extinction six months after it was launched with the ambition of capturing a mass readership.

The closure of Khorshid [Sun] follows a brief stormy existence marked by management rows, mass journalist resignations, dropping sales and criticism of an £8.6m budget provided by the social security organization, the state pension body.

This week's decision to cease publication was prompted by a call for austerity by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who announced that cutting consumption should be the theme of the new Iranian year as the country struggled to cope with the recession.

The paper's demise has been met with glee from Ahmadinejad's critics, who saw it as a propaganda tool designed to whip up public support for his re-election campaign in June's presidential poll.

Khorshid was launched in October by one of Ahmadinejad's aides, Muhammad Paryab, who said it would concentrate on a populist mix of human interest, entertainment and sport while providing minimal political news. He predicted an initial sale of 200,000 which would rise steadily.

Circulation was rumored to have dropped to 60,000 after plans to expand editions from 24 to 36 full-color pages were reversed in favor of scaling down to 16 pages.