The cost basis of the Irish newspaper industry is too high, says Gavin O'Reilly, and he wants to reduce it. With an investment of £50 million, he has an incentive.
It would be natural at this time of year to look back over the past 12 months or even over the past 100 years, but with the newspaper industry, especially this year, looking forward is far more rewarding. The past on this occasion indicates the future.
And what a year for newspapers it is likely to be. In the late Autumn of 2000 Independent News and Media is expected to print the first copies of the Irish Independent at its £50 million printing plant at City West and thereby affect the greatest change the newspaper industry has seen since the demise of the Irish Press in 1994. In a stroke competition in the already highly competitive Irish newspaper market will be increased.
The view within the industry is that the failure of Independent to update its printing has meant it has not benefited as much as it could from the booming economy. Its layouts are tired, the pages look grey. Often the newspapers, whether the daily or the Sunday, looks like a dog's dinner, albeit a black and white dog's dinner.
The profits made by Abbey Street titles have been used to fund the group's overseas ambitions. As the company was buying newspapers in South Africa, News Zealand, Australia and, most famously, the loss-making London Independent, the Independent titles in Dublin have had to make do with old black and white presses which has not allowed them to benefit from the enormous amount of colour advertising out there looking for space.
Meanwhile, The Irish Times, with a smaller circulation, 112,623, compared to the Irish Independent's 165,650 average daily sales, has been cleaning up with its bright lay-outs and facilities for colour advertising and inserts.
There is a view in the industry that The Irish Times will not know what will hit it when Independent's new City West plant comes on stream. That remains to be seen - the Independent did not use its superior spending power to its editorial benefit last year. It was one of the few national news outlets not to have a reporter covering the war in Kosovo. It will, however, be able to benefit commercially and will also force The Irish Times into offering discounts and deals to advertisers, something it has not had to do in recent years, forcing down its revenue earnings.
But just as Independent looked like it was getting its own way, in comes The Irish Times and says that its own plans for a new press in west Dublin are moving forward as fast as possible. "It is a priority," said the newspaper's new managing director, Nick Chapman, whose appointment was one of the surprises of 1999. It is also believed The Irish Times will finally produce its weekend colour magazine sometime in 2000.
Everyone is denying that the move to green field printing sites in west Dublin will mirror what happened at Wapping, east London, in 1986 when Rupert Murdoch embraced new technology and moved his national newspapers out of Fleet Street to break the restraining power of the print unions. Irish law would make such a development unlikely, but there is already a lot of activity on the industrial relations front and deals are being made with print unions in preparation for the new developments.
Journalists will be looking for their own deals in return for using new technologies. The managing director of Independent Newspapers, Gavin O'Reilly, talks of "low cost units" and how it is imperative to change work practices. The cost basis of the Irish newspaper industry is too high, he says, and he wants to reduce it. With an investment of £50 million, he has an incentive.
The new competitiveness in the newspaper market is not only being driven by the cost of new plants. There is also the presence of British newspapers, especially the tabloids, as well as new media such as the Internet and digital television.
It is also being driven by the strength of the economy: it is far harder now to divide us all into those neat social groupings the advertisers love. It has become more difficult to distinguish between the habits of a comparatively high spending AB consumer and the less well off C1 person and so there is no respect for different market niches. All readers are fair game and the success of the Independent and the Examiner during 1999 shows the power of marketing.
Newspapers have benefited from the strength of the economy in sales and revenue. Last year saw sales of Irish newspapers increase by about two per cent - not a dramatic figure, but only a few short years ago newspaper sales were falling by the same percentage annually.
The Examiner has performed best of all the dailies in percentage terms in 1999 and while it might not have gained many readers outside its Munster stronghold it is strong in three cities, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. There are rumours that it might be due for another name change, to the Irish Examiner.
Life was never easy for the Star, what with having to battle daily with Irish editions of the Sun and the Mirror. Official figures for the first six months of 1999 indicate only a marginal increase for the Star - 0.2 per cent. The Mirror is now owned by Trinity Mirror, the result of the merger of Trinity Holdings, which also owns the Sunday Business Post, and Mirror Group.
The new company has to sell off the Belfast Telegraph, by order of the British monopolies and competition authorities. The economic benefits of the peace agreement might make the Telegraph a very attractive proposition for Independent News and Media.
It's not all plain sailing for the British tabloids, however. This year, a jury told the Mirror to make the largest libel payment here to date - £250,0000 - when the paper was sued successfully by Denis O'Brien of Esat and 98 FM.
Michael Foley is a senior lecturer in journalism at the Dublin Institute of Technology.