The 'Kumudra' weekly stopped publishing at the end of January this year after the journal management and the publishing license owner disagreed on the terms of renewal of the license. Now the journal management team has decided to rename the journal and republish it with a new name the 'Modern News Journal'.

"The journal will be republished on the 21st of this month. The staff members will be the ones who were in the Kumudra journal and nothing will be changed. After a long gap with our readers, we are reintroducing the journal with a new name 'Modern' in lieu of 'Kumudra'. Changing the name apart, the format and layout will be the same," a source close to the journal told Mizzima.

After negotiations on raising the publishing license lease fees between the journal management and the license owner Maj. Myat Thura (retired) failed, the publishing of 'Kumudra' journal was suspended on January 25.

The journal has been published weekly since 2001 and had a circulation of 30,000 to 40,000 copies. It was popular among the people. The circulation cannot be increased immediately as a precise estimate of sales cannot be made right away with the new name.

"First we will start with just over 5,000 copies on a trial basis. We will advertise our new journal in newspapers saying the new 'Modern' will be the same as the old 'Kumudra'. We hope our journal will be accepted and be popular among the people again as our aim is to keep people informed. But it will take time," a veteran writer close to this journal said.