KUALA LUMPUR — Brunei’s second-largest daily newspaper, The Brunei Times, published its final edition yesterday, after abruptly announcing plans for closure over the weekend, triggering online speculation about the reason.

The daily, which was launched in 2006, announced on its Sunday front page that it would cease publication the next day.

Yesterday, it said in a longer notice that the closure was due to “business issues, reporting and journalistic standards that should meet the mark set, and also issues relating to business sustainability, especially in the face of considerable challenges from the alternative media”.

In its latest announcement, The Brunei Times thanked the Brunei government “for bearing with (the company)” and for “having continued to extend the licence to publish despite all the issues”.

“The Brunei Times, however, no longer has sustainable resources to continue its media and publication operations and the company’s board of directors has agreed that the best course of action is to close down the paper,” it added. It also called the shutdown “sadly inevitable” and thanked its staff “for their dedication, zeal, enthusiasm and tremendous effort”.

The Brunei Times did not address posts on social media that it had been ordered to shut down for publishing an article on Oct 26 about changes in visa fees imposed by the Saudi Arabian government for Brunei haj pilgrims.

The daily carried an apology for the article on its website on Friday. A spokesman for The Brunei Times declined to comment on the posts and instead referred Reuters to yesterday’s front page statement. He said that the newspaper had 110 people on its staff.

The Prime Minister’s Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Jakarta Post said that with about 10,000 copies being circulated daily, The Brunei Times was second only to the more established Borneo Bulletin, with some 20,000 copies during weekdays and 25,000 copies on weekends. AGENCIES