A deal to relaunch a Scottish daily business newspaper as a weekly publication has collapsed.

As Business a.m. hit the news stands for the last time, the Financial News group confirmed it will not be buying the Edinburgh-based paper's trade and assets.

Swedish owners Bonnier announced on Monday that the struggling title would close with the compulsory redundancy of 125 staff.

Angus McDonald, Financial News group chief executive, said his bid to relaunch the paper was not economically viable and described it as a complete tragedy.

Mr McDonald said: "We were going to do a deal but the risk/reward sum just kept increasing.

"Under European employment law, we would also have been potentially liable for all the employees."

Business a.m. editor Richard Neville said: "The company is being wound down by Bonnier and the deal with Financial News would have created a new company."