More than 350 people had signed an electronic petition by last night to save the English-language newspaper the Athens News after it emerged on Friday that Lambrakis Press, which has managed the weekly since 1993, said it will wind up the operation, possibly this week.

In an e-mail late on Friday, the newspaper’s editor John Psaropoulos said efforts were being made to extend the deadline so new investors could express their interest. Readers set up an online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/AN001/petition.html.

“I believe the newspaper can be turned around in a year or just over a year with a business plan that the Lambrakis Press is not willing or unable to carry out,” Psaropoulos told Kathimerini English Edition. “But I think our publisher is keen to allow someone else the opportunity of bringing to completion the work in which he invested 15 years.”

He said the newspaper, first published in 1952, has launched a subscription drive to help keep it in existence, adding that fees would be reimbursed if the paper closes.