February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The gloves are off in a new battle of the broadsheets with the Examiner adding the name Irish to its flag and taking on the role of giant killer by targeting the Irish Independent’s top spot in the market.
In an effort to break out of the Munster region, the Examiner had already dropped the prefix Cork from its masthead, in 1996, and has been building up outlets throughout the country.
The paper was concerned about how the shedding of Cork might be greeted in its home base, but the change has paid off and sales have increased.
A redesign, rebrand and relaunch last week hardly referred to the Irish Times but carried a banner headline "Taking on the Indo".
The Independent and the Examiner are both chasing mid-market readers while the Times sells into the top end.
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First published in 1841, the Examiner’s base has traditionally been confined to 70 miles of Cork. But it argues that with new technology a national newspaper does not have to be based in the capital.
Alan Crosbie, chief executive, signaled an aggressive campaign to push out the boundaries.
The Tony O’Reilly papers had no "God-given right" to the No. 1 position, he said.
"The O’Reilly dominance needs to be addressed and outside that there are only ourselves, the Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post — as the only true indigenous Irish newspapers to do so."
He said the O’Reilly group had profits of £113 million, including investments abroad. The profit from Ireland was £45 million compared to the Examiner’s £5 million.
"People are crying out for an alternative to the Independent and we want to make it very clear that we are offering ourselves to the public as that alternative," Examiner editor Brian Looney wrote.
Looney is fronting a lot of the marketing campaign but he has a lot of ground to make up.
The Independent sells about 165,000 copies daily, the Irish Times about 112,000 and the Examiner about 62,000.
Despite all the predictions that increasing radio and TV channels would hit circulation and the new challenge of Internet news availability would cut daily paper purchases, the Times and the Independent are both pressing ahead with new print plants and a similar move is under consideration at the Examiner.
In the tabloid end of the market, competition continues to be fierce with the Star — jointly owned by the Independent and the British Express group — holding off cut-price challenges from the Mirror and the Sun.
About 30 percent of newspapers sold in the Republic every day are UK-owned publications and this rises to about 35 percent for Sunday papers.