MINUS ATHENS PLUS

~ Sad Fond Farewell ~

Very sad news - Athens Plus closing.

Extracts from Nick Malkoutzis' measured and moving message:

"The last copy of Athens Plus that we are publishing. Our newspaper sprang to life just two-and-a-half years ago, as our publisher's gesture of hope in our country's development and in the durability of print; it was born of the successful collaboration of Kathimerini and the International Herald Tribune.

Our joint venture began in early 1998, when Greece's most prestigious newspaper teamed up with the global daily to create Kathimerini's English Edition, which started life as an eight-page insert in the IHT in Greece and Cyprus.

Ten years later, Athens Plus was born, the inspiration of our owners, who wanted a newspaper that would be modern and beautiful.

Athens Plus was born at a time that Greece was sliding inexorably toward the current economic crisis. We became a microcosm of our country, part of the story that we were covering.

We got to the point where, if we continued to make the cuts that would help us break even, we would have destroyed what we were making."

The roll of honour:

Nick Malkoutzis*Elis Kiss*Christine Sturmey*Harry van Versendaal*Dimitra Angeli*Niki Kitsantonis*George Georgakopoulos*Stelios Bouras*George Kolyvas*Laura McDowell*Steve Stafford*Soultana Kalligas*Deborah Ellis*Nikol Karali*Evie Kousoula*Julia Panayotou*Phoebe Fronista*Katerina Voussoura*Vivienne Nilan*Evangelia Arvaniti*Yvette Varvaressou*Alexandra Koroxenidis*Theokli Kotsifaki*Haris Argyropoulos*Manos Symeonakis*Maria Kirchantzoglou*Panos Athanasainas*Mark Weinstein*John Leonard*Jens Bastian*Valentina Villegas-Nikas*Nikos Konstandaras

My sadness and regret is true. I loved my Fridays: zoom down to the local newsagent, grab the 2 papers - yes, I don't mind doffing a cap to Athens News.

Mum would grab the News and I'd get stuck into the meatier Plus and their wonderful arts pages (not to put down the others - mum's recipe scrapbook looks like a bulging annexe of AP).

Then I'd speed to Youtube and look up the artistes they mentioned and pass them off to all my Seattle, Hong Kong, Clapham et aleundi pals.

Oh poh poh - Plus's left-hand column of Top 10 tracks on various intriguing themes - being dumped, being blue, saying goodbye - were Run-Don't-Walk posts, again passed off as my own.

Gawd knows what answers I'll now come up with when asked how come my inspiration has dried. Whoops - busted.

Sad sad sad, and a measure of the times in which we slave and those to come.

Bravo, those heros.