Voice group closes two more weekly newspapers

THE VOICE Newspaper Group, which is backed by wealthy philanthropist Niall Mellon, yesterday closed two more of its weekly titles.

Staff at the Kildare Voice in Naas and the Tipperary Voice in Clonmel were told yesterday that the papers would close with immediate effect. About 20 staff have been made redundant.

Earlier this week, about 20 workers at the Cavan Voice and Monaghan Voice publications were laid off.

In a statement, the newspaper group said the decision was due to a downturn in the economy and "unprecedented competition" from UK newspaper groups.

The Kildare and Tipperary titles, which were launched in 2007, had incurred "significant losses", the media group added. Both were published on Tuesdays and had a cover price of €1.80.

The company, which was founded by John Sheils in 2005, said its newspapers in Kilkenny, Laois, Galway and Tallaght would continue to be published. The Kilkenny paper is believed to have weekly sales of 8,500.

According to the statement, the newspaper group's 10 investors "have advanced additional money this week to ensure that every staff member who lost their jobs will receive one month's salary".

The newspaper group declined to reveal the identity of its investors.

In a statement released to The Irish Times, Mr Mellon said he regretted the closures.

"Eighteen months after John Sheils founded this newspaper group, he approached myself and a number of others to invest in the company.

"I liked Mr Sheils's vision for the newspaper group and made a decision to invest.

"The money we invested in some of those papers is gone, but I am not overly concerned about it as that's the risk you take when you make a speculative new enterprise.

"However, I feel very strongly for the staff who were made redundant in the four titles that closed this week. Along with the other investors, I am gladly putting up additional funds to ensure that the staff get one month's salary, though I fully appreciate that they would much prefer to have their jobs."

Mr Mellon said Mr Sheils has presented the investors with proposals that he believes will allow it to achieve profitability.

Mr Mellon said his investment in the Voice group had no implications for his township project in South Africa.