Independent News and Media is to take “full executive responsibility” for the Irish Daily Star, it announced yesterday, as the group struck an agreement with its joint venture partner Northern and Shell.
The deal between the two 50:50 shareholders in Independent Star Ltd, the company that publishes the Irish Daily Star, follows last September’s threat by Northern and Shell owner Richard Desmond to close the title.
Mr Desmond made his threat in response to the newspaper’s decision to publish photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton sunbathing topless on private property in France.
Under the new arrangement, the newspaper’s operation will move from Dundrum to INM’s premises on Talbot Street in Dublin city centre, from where the Irish Independent, Evening Herald, the Sunday Independent and the Sunday World are produced.
It is expected that up to nine redundancies in the Irish Daily Star’s circulation and advertising departments will be made as a result of the restructuring, while there will also be pay cuts for the remainder of its 110 employees.
A voluntary redundancy scheme at the Sunday World last year was oversubscribed, while further job losses are expected to be announced at other INM titles this year.
INM confirmed that the former editor of the Irish Daily Star, Ger Colleran, who had moved to become managing director of the Independent Star Ltd, will once again take the title of editor.
Previous editor Michael O’Kane was suspended in the wake of the publication of the royal photographs and he then left the newspaper in November.
Shared functions
Gerry Lennon has been appointed managing director of Independent Star Ltd in addition to his role as managing director of the Sunday World and both titles will share some functions.
In a statement, INM described the restructuring as “a very positive development for the future of the Irish Daily Star”, adding that it was “predicated” on the operational efficiencies and cost savings.
Independent Star Ltd will remain as a stand-alone entity, with a separate board, while Northern and Shell has agreed not to distribute the British version of the Star in Ireland.
The Star had a circulation of 69,200 in the first half of 2012, down from more than 100,000 four years earlier.
