Blurred Keys

The Phoenix fined by regulator

- Publication admits to breaches

The Irish Financial Regulator has fined the Phoenix magizine for breaches of rules on writhing about shares.

The regulator said yesterday that a fine of €5,000 was imposed after Penfield Enterprises Ltd and publisher Mr John Mulcahy admitted to breaking the Market Abuse Regulations rules.

Exclusives, exclusives, exclusives.... Phoenix Magazine Vs the Sunday Times

Newspapers get a bit prickly when it comes to exclusives and credit for such, rightly so. But apparently there's a bit of confusion over who got there first at the Irish edition of the Sunday Times on a story on Manhon Tribunal interview tapes.

The Times printed their story earlier this month, while the Phoenix published their first at the start of the year. Phoenix explains...

Irish magazines: they’re giving them away?

Newspaper and magazines are often accused of putting their own twist on circulation and readership numbers, but the Phoenix’s ‘Fit to Print?’ recently* had an interesting angle on the latest ABC results for Irish magazines.

The Phoenix says that the ‘devil is in the detail’, showing that Magill has an average circulation figure of 14,985 but only 4,672 copies are sold at full price tag of €3.25.

Meanwhile about two thirds of Business & Finance’s 15,638 circulation is sold at half price or less and just under 3,000 more are just given away as free subscriptions.

The Dubliner also sells less then one third of 10,038 at under the cover price – 3,000 are sold at less then 50%, 2,410 at less then 10% of the cover price, and 1,350 are – again  – just given away.

The Phoenix says (and the ABC report confirms) that its 18,154 circulation includes “no discount sales or free copies”. ABC’s 'Island of Ireland Report' for December 2006 includes ABC certified magazines, newspapers, and websites, it can be viewed in PDF form here, or by visiting abc-ireland.ie.

(*Phoenix dated Febuary 23 2007 – apologies for the lack of Blurred Keys updates in recent weeks)

Justine McCarthy leaves Village - report

UPDATE: Village magazine has announced that it will now be publishing monthly rather then weekly, in their statement they say Justine McCarthy will be writing for the first monthly edition on February 15.

The Phoenix is reporting that the Vincent Browne’s Village magazine has lost its deputy editor, Justine McCarthy, to the Sunday Tribune.

The story is contained in the current edition of the Phoenix dated January 12, although the magazine was on the shelves of Dublin newsagents at least the day before. 

In Village's current issue, dated January 11-17, the cover story an –  an interview with Geraldine Finucane on her husband’s murder –  is credited to McCarthy.

The story, on Phoenix's 'Fit to Print' page, claims that Tribune editor Noirin Hegarty “made McCarthy and offer she couldn’t refuse; namely a real journalist’s salary as well as proper working hours”.

McCarthy left the Irish Independent after disagreements with editor Gerry O’Regan and joined Browne’s magazine in September, she was described at the time as “one of Ireland’s most distinguished journalists”.

Tits on the cover of The Irish Times!

No, wait. It was in an advert, so it's ok...

'Independent' censorship underreported? Phoenix obsessed with Village?

Keeping to our usual theme that the media hides important stories under the carpet; the Phoenix this week states that the treatment Independent News and Media handed out to journalists Gerry Flynn and Justine McCarthy has been underreported.

The Phoenix highlights itself and the Village as having taken an interest, then goes on to accuse the Village of an “imbalance” on the story. The magazine makes out that Village editor Vincent Browne was, at the time of their first article, trying to recruite McCarthy. Then implies there hasn’t been any coverage since because “Browne has now got what wanted – McCarthy’s employment at his magazine”. The ‘Fit to print?’ column is also somewhat obsessed with the news of Village’s financial troubles.

There is - of course - no possibility that any Phoenix coverage of Village could be seen as having any “imbalance”. While it could be misguided to switch one magazine for the other, the Village is a grownup version of the Phoenix. They may not be in direct competition, but they’re not worlds apart - at least some of their readership overlap.

Browne on crime journalism & Guerin

"crime journalism is (in the main) a debased form of the trade because it relies almost entirely on two unreliable sources: police and criminals.

Anyway, the task of journalists is not to hold criminals accountable. That is the function of the state. The role of journalists is to hold institutions of the state accountable, notably the police, so crime journalism is often subversive of the primary function of journalists. My recollection is that Guerin argued with me a bit about this, but essentially agreed.

She told me she was stopping crime journalism, not because of any trepidation on her part, but because (I understood) she acknowledged this is not what journalists should be doing" - Vincent Browne, the Sunday Business Post

Further on in the column Browne says that Guerin told him of a Phoenix bit sourced from files taken from his computer. The person, he says, he identify as taking the files now works at a Dublin newspaper in a “senior editorial position”.

Sindo’s Harris versus the Village (...and the Phoenix, just to get them all in)

Before leaving the kitchen just now, on the table, among old newspapers, I spotted an unread copy of the Sunday Independent dated May 21, 2006… needless to say that regular newspaper buyer won’t have got the Sindo. 

The above might read somewhat like Harris’ intro to his attack (free registration required), but that’s how it just happened, so, I’m inclined (no pun intended) to believe his version too.

Sir Anthony was on the cover was among the reasons Eoghan Harris bought Village, at Heuston Station. Harris tells us some 'facts'…

Why Village readers love the British press, and not the Sindo and family…

“Why do the rabidly republican readers of Village - and its spiritual sister Phoenix - prefer the British press to the O'Reilly press? Answer: because the British press in Ireland feels far too vulnerable to stand up to Sinn Fein”.

Why Village readers hate the Indo…

“the fact that O'Reilly's Independent News & Media has dourly defended Irish democracy for the past 30 years”

Ok, that’s his point of view etc, but if you read the rest, you might wonder like myself, what Harris’ column is doing in the “Analysis” section of a newspaper. It’s a mixture of ‘this is what I did the other day’ and ‘a beggar called me a cunt’ - admittedly, I don’t know the Sindo that well, but I’m told it’s littered with fiction and speculation confused with fact.