Blurred Keys

IN&M's Sindy still sliding despite redesign

The Independent on Sunday, Independent News & Media's London-based Sunday title, is still seeing a drop in sales even after a recent re-design.

While bulk and foreign sale were up, the paper overall is continuing to slide. The Sindy's re-launched as a single section paper appears to have failed to stall the decline.

Propped up

As with the Sunday Tribune here, the Independent stable in the UK is being propped up by IN&M. The Irish Times points out the London publications have been "consistently loss-making" since IN&M bought them, loosing €9 million last year alone.

Pressure to sell

Irish businessman and Indo shareholder, Denis O'Brien, recently put pressure on the company to  cut the London titles lose (sub reqd) while also bring up the topic of standards of corporate governance.

The Irish Times has reported just a week ago (sub reqd) that Merrion Stockbrokers have downgraded IN&M from 'buy' to 'hold'. Also in the Times news briefs are nearly daily reports of share buy backs, IN&M is continuing to buy back its own shares in an apparent attempt to stall O'Brien's advances on the group.

MORE: Independent titles suffer as The Times prospers

Independent: O’Reilly's cash cow

Independent News & Media is apparently Sir Tony O’Reilly's cash cow…

O’Reilly alone took €110m in payments from Independent Newspapers since 2000, while jobs are being cut and outsourced to make way for even more largesse - Village.ie

Indo outsourcing to RE&D update

An over due update to our post in early February - Independent News & Media are now trying to outsource Dublin sub-editing and layout jobs to RE&D.

Sub-editing staff at IN&M are apparently reluctance to move to the new company, according to the Sunday Business Post who quotes a source saying the people who move will be paid ‘‘above-market rates’’ (but less then IN&M pays them now).

The same newspaper says that RE&D was set up by two former IN&M employees and is based at Hanover Quay in the south Dublin Docklands.

NUJ members "expressed serious concern", and the Irish Times also quoted (paid sub reqd) NUJ Irish secretary "Séamus Mr Dooley" saying "We are looking for more specific information about what is on offer and we will be looking for agreement in principle for NUJ recognition in any new operation".

Meanwhile, Roy Greenslade is reporting how IN&M are pushing the same outsourcing at their New Zealand arm APN News & Media. And, with help from Adam Maguire, Greenslade is also talking about the Irish story.

UPDATE: Read more on this at pressgazette.co.uk

Production and sub-editing job cuts at Independent News & Media?

It is understood that many of the changes will be in the production and sub-editing area, where IN&M will seek to outsource some of the production of the newspapers from their base in Talbot Street. The group has already made a similar move in the North, where there were over 100 redundancies at the Belfast Telegraph, followed by a moving of some pre-press production to Armagh.

...From a Sunday Business Post article, titled 'Independent titles braced for major staff cuts', on possible job cuts at newspapers run by Independent News & Media. Below is what chief executive Tony O’Reilly had to said about outsourcing in company’s annual report…

With the exception of the magic of writing and editing news . . . almost every other function, except printing, is location-indifferent. No reader knows where the page is made up. No reader understands or cares about where telesales or marketing are located.

In other Independent News and Media Plc news this week, Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien increased his shareholding in the company from 3% to 5%.

The Post also reported today (article not online at the time of writing) that O'Brien most likely wanted his share increases to be known as he could have increased his holding to 4.9% without being obliged to declare such.

Greenslade on ‘the (London) Independent’

Below are extracts from a post by the Guardian’s media bloger, Roy Greenslade, on the (London) Independent’s further steps to downfall and what he sees as their worst mistake - not to invest in new media (as the Guardian and others have to the point of success).

But the newspaper only exists out of the charity of its owners, Independent News & Media, the Irish-based media conglomerate chaired by Tony O'Reilly. It couldn't exist outside, in the harsh world of business realism. All the journalists already know that…

The real complaints ought to concentrate on the paper's failure to build for the future by grasping the potential of new media. Its online presence is virtually non-existent and that's where resources should be concentrated. In the end, as the newsprint paper continues to lose sales - as it undoubtedly will in the coming months - it will regret its strategic error in failing to have a decent website that everyone can read.

To Blurred Keys it’s a reminder of Irish media outlets general attitude to the internet - don’t develop, or don’t do it to international standards (even the Irish Times’ new design looks like it could have been created five years ago). In Ireland, with much lower broadband penetration and relatively strong newspaper sales in it’s not such a pressing matter at the moment.

Latest Irish newspaper circulation figures

Blurred Keys has moved to the capital (the real one, not Cork), and we have once more been left broadband-less so please excuse our even less then usual updates. We’re using this as our excuse for not reporting on the latest Irish newspaper circulation figures late last month. Here’s what Irish business site finfacts.com reported...

Irish Newspaper circulation figures released today for the the first six months of 2006 show that there was a 0.2% annual rise in the circulation of the Irish Times, and sales of the Irish Independent remained unchanged. In the Sunday market, The Sunday Business Post was the biggest gainer with circulation up 7.8% to 55,876.

'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.

Regional newspapers' pension wind up plan unjustified, says the Irish Labour Court

On Thursday, the Irish Labour Court told the Regional Newspapers Association of Ireland that their plan to wind up the pension scheme is unjustified.

Des Fagan, from the Irish branch of the National Union of Journalists, said that it was only when “Faced with the threat of industrial action the RNAI was forced to attend the LRC”. NUJ members working for regional newspapers had voted 82% in favour of industrial action. Séamus Dooley, NUJ Irish Secretary, added, “This is a landmark finding which we hope the RNAI will respect”, continuing, “Some newspapers had excluded staff and the Labour Court finding in this regard is of particular significance".

Meanwhile, the Ireland on Sunday’s media column while staying on the topic of pensions does not cover the Labour Court ruling. ‘The Spike’ reports that Indo News and Media staff were asked to forgo a 3% wage increase so such funds could be redirected to their pension fund, which just happens to have a 36 million euro shortfall. IoS points out that “This from a company that on the same day promised double-digit earnings growth! No need to worry about Sir Anto’s own pension then!”

The same column says after the Irish Times HQ has been sold for more then four million euro, the “NUJ chapel” at the Times said they want their (smaller) pension-fund deficit made up, and remainder ring-fenced for future investment.

(NUJ vie Greenslade, and the Daily Hate group's Ireland on Sunday)

Conspiracy – newspapers on the web for free!

The latest edition of Murdock’s trilling read, ‘the Sunday Times’, features Sir Tony O’Reilly implying that there is some kind of conspiracy to defraud the newspaper industry, saying there is a need for action over copyright theft on the internet in which newspapers are the victims.

“I can see the newspaper industry getting together the same way as the recording industry got together, except in a more effective way,” O’Reilly told the Sunday Times.

O’Reilly is chief executive of Independent News & Media who publish Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Belfast Telegraph, Evening Herald, Sunday World the Star and a number of regional papers  – they also own titles in New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, and India. According to the company’s website, they operate “over 70 on-line editorial and classified sites”. (In addition, O’Reilly is chairperson of Waterford Wedgwood, and Eircom.) 

Video advert for '24' DVD on Times Online - can print newspapers do that?

O'Reilly went on to attack the internet as an advertisement medium, saying that some things aren’t suitable to advertise online. Really? What exactly? While at the Sunday Times website Blurred Keys was entertained by advertisements for cars, DVDs, holidays, online poker, along with branding for insurance. A quick look at the Indo’s site gives advertisements for mortgages, Tesco, and motor insurance. The advert for the DVD box set of the TV program '24' on Times Online was a video (pictured above) - can newspapers do that?

In further outburst of conservatism, and a dig at blogs, Sir Tony states “You can trust newspaper writers. Can you trust a blogger?” – well sir, Blurred Keys trusts some blogs a hell of a lot more then we trust newspapers linked to certain people.