Daily Ireland, the strongly pro-nationalist newspaper published in Belfast, ceases publication today after 20 months in production.
The Andersonstown News group, which published the title, blamed the closure and loss of 15 jobs on a refusal by government agencies in Northern Ireland to buy advertising. Ten of those losing their jobs are journalists.
Sources at Daily Ireland said a small redundancy package was available for affected staff, who are said to be shocked at the suddenness of the announcement.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, managing director, said the British government's "refusal" to allow Daily Ireland to tender for advertisements on the basis of its group sales was "a bridge too far" for the title.
"Daily Ireland played a vital role in promoting the nationalist case at a time when McCarthyism and anti-nationalist voices were in the ascendancy," he said.
"We are very proud of the achievements of the Daily Ireland team over the past 20 months. We hope we have inspired others to take up where we have left off and that this is more a time-out than an ending." However, The Irish Times understands there is no immediate prospect of another venture taking on the title.
The group is continuing with two legal challenges to the government decision not to place advertising.
One involves Invest Northern Ireland, which provides start-up assistance. The second is against the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister at Stormont.
The £3 million cases (€4.41 million), supported by the Equality Commission, may be heard before the end of the year.
"When Daily Ireland launched on February 1st, 2005, we had a realistic expectation that we would receive Invest Northern Ireland start-up assistance," Mr Ó Muilleoir said yesterday.
"This was refused. We also expected to receive government advertisements on the same basis as the other local dailies. Instead, we were told we would have to receive an ABC certificate of distribution - a stipulation which never applied to any of the existing newspapers which were the beneficiaries for many years of huge amounts of government ad money."
The Daily Ireland website will continue, the publishing group pledged, but it was admitted that a proper news service was not realistic.