Befitting its end, the front page of the final issue of Le Jeudi is a black page with an epitaph, showing the paper's run from 1997 to 2019.
The Luxembourg Association for Professional Journalists (ALJP) deplored the 'brutal end' of the weekly paper, which has published its final issue on Thursday.
In a brief official statement, the ALJP expressed its wishes that Editpress's executive committee avoid such sudden closures in the future. The association lamented the end of a French medium in Luxembourg, which would leave a hole in Luxembourg's media landscape. The association also expressed its support and solidarity with the eleven journalists affected by the paper's closure.
The association also announced it would closely follow redundancy plan negotiations for the Jeudi's staff, especially as the OGBL, the trade union representing employees, is also the main shareholder in the parent company Editpress.
The press council (Presserot) also shared its regret that that the Jeudi would cease to exist, describing it as a 'great loss' for the country's intelligent and pertinent journalism. The council highlighted that the decision to stop publishing a newspaper is contradictory to guaranteeing Luxembourg's offer of pluralistic media.
As Editpress announced the decision on Tuesday, the parent company highlighted the challenges the newspaper had faced, especially faced with the online face of media. The newspaper's adverts were constantly being reduced, in turn reducing the paper's revenue.
The last TNS-Ilres survey on media habits revealed that the Jeudi had an average of 26,700 readers each week. The paper came out every Thursday since 1997, as per its name.
