February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The Scottish Radio media group are expected to make a bid valued at up to £8 million for the Ireland on Sunday newspaper, which was originally set up in 1996 as an exclusively sports paper called The Title.
Since its relaunch as a middle-market tabloid with a nationalist editorial policy and The Title as a supplement, the paper has increased its circulation to over 70,000 a week.
It is rapidly catching up with its nearest rival, the Sunday Tribune, on the back of a highly successful computers-for-schools marketing campaign.
In the intensely competitive Sunday market, both Ireland on Sunday and the Tribune are losing money. However, Ireland on Sunday’s losses of £25,000-£30,000 a month are less than the £50,000 a month its backers had expected.
Scottish Radio already has a shareholding in the national radio station Today FM and is involved in regional newspapers in Northern Ireland. It also owns the Leitrim Observer.
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The bid interest is believed to have arisen out Ireland on Sunday’s investigation of extra printing capacity. Scottish Radio’s Morton Newspapers owns a printing plant in Portadown, Co Armagh.