The Sunday Tribune group has appointed a new managing director. He is Mr Jim Farrelly, currently managing director of The Kerryman newspaper, which is owned by Independent News & Media. Independent also controls 29.9 per cent of the Sunday Tribune group.

In a statement last night, Sunday Tribune chairman Mr Gordon Colleary said Mr Farrelly "was by far the outstanding candidate and we are delighted he has joined us".

Mr Colleary could not be contacted last night to elaborate further.

A senior executive in the Independent group where he has worked for many years, Mr Farrelly should be able to anticipate that company's aims in relation to the Tribune, whose circulation is hovering around 84,000 copies per week. It is competing in a cut-throat market and against the highly successful Sunday Independent, which is owned by the Independent group.

A major report examining newspaper ownership, by the Competition Mergers Review Group, is due to be published shortly. Independent's involvement in the Tribune is one issue it is expected to examine.

Mr Farrelly, who was unavailable last night, is a distinguished newspaperman and trained barrister who made the headlines himself last year. He was unhappy with a scheme proposed by the Independent group's solicitor, Mr Donal Roche, to gain control of the Kingdom newspaper in Kerry, a paper with a circulation of 5,000. Independent was trying to buy the newspaper without triggering the interest of the Competition Authority.

Mr Roche suggested an approach whereby Independent would buy 25 per cent of the Kingdom and try to "keep the value of the newspaper low".

Mr Roche suggested this could be done by any enhancement of its value being matched by an increase in loans due to Independent and through any profits it made being paid to Independent through printing costs and by interest payments on the loan.

In the end, the Examiner group bought the Kingdom, following court proceedings.