German business paper faces closure Gruner + Jahr is poised to announce the imminent closure of Financial Times Deutschland, the German business newspaper. While a formal decision by G+J, the magazine publisher, and Bertelsmann its owner, is expected on Friday, staff at the paper are almost certain that closure is on the cards after almost 12 years. "We haven't heard anything officially, but everything is pointing to the 7th [of December] being the last publication date," one of the newspaper's senior writers said. We're going to make it a really good edition. The expected decision by G+J and Bertelsmann is likely to lead to about 320 redundancies. The newspaper hit the streets in 2001 as a joint venture between Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, and G+J. But Pearson sold its 50 per cent stake to the German publisher at the start of 2008. At the time, people familiar with the talks said the publishing unit of Bertelsmann would pay €10m up front and annual licence payments of €500,000 for 10 years - although it was not clear last night what would happen to the remaining payments. FTD's demise is part of a wave of bad news for the German print-media business. The Frankfurter Rundschau, a quality daily, filed for bankruptcy, and the news agency dapd is trying to regain its footing in insolvency. Alongside closing FTD, the publisher is expected to sell the business magazines Impulse and Boerse Online - although it might keep the monthly Capital.