ELLSWORTH (AP) – The Ellsworth Weekly is ceasing publication after the next issue.

The paper’s owner, Courier Publications of Rockland, plans to merge the news and advertising operations of the Ellsworth Weekly with The Bar Harbor Times, another weekly paper that it owns. Its last issue will be Thursday.

Group publisher William Atkinson said the decision was largely financial. The paper’s Ellsworth office will remain open as a news bureau for The Bar Harbor Times.

The Ellsworth Weekly started in 1993 and has a circulation of about 2,700. Ellsworth has another weekly paper, The Ellsworth American, which is more than 150 years old.

Courier Publications also owns weekly newspapers in Belfast, Rockland, Augusta and Camden. Atkinson said no changes are planned for those papers.