Fear and loathing

As Vinny Doyle eventually hands over the helm of the Irish Independent, Conor Brady reviews his editorship, looks at what lies ahead for Gerard O'Regan and is taken aback by the Sunday Independent's extraordinary (unsigned) rant against the Daily Mail

Younger readers of Village will not remember Rodney Danker's great closing down sale. Rodney sold interesting prints and books from his shop off Grafton Street. Sometime towards the end of the 1960s, notices began to appear in The Irish Times classified ads announcing the imminent demise of his enterprise. Naturally, there was a rush to secure bargains (Rodney kept a large and eclectic stock and offered good prices.) But the shop seemed to keep going, as it were, forever. When it did finally close, years later, nobody really believed it had happened.

Vinny Doyle's retirement from the editorship of the Irish Independent has followed a similar pattern. "The Doyler's" stand-down has been imminent for perhaps a decade. He was expected to go when the legendary Joe Hayes vacated the managing director's job. He was definitely going, according to Abbey Street insiders, when Liam Healy stepped down. Five years ago it was received wisdom that he would go once Managing Director David Palmer's new print plant was commissioned at Citywest.

Now that he has actually gone, after almost a quarter century in the chair, to be replaced by Gerard O'Regan, it will be difficult to imagine the Independent without him. But the changing of the editorial guard is no mere rotation of personnel. The Independent is gearing up for the fight of its life against the invading forces of Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Daily Mail, Ireland On Sunday and the soon-to-be freesheet, Metro. Doyle's replacement by O'Regan constitutes an important element in the Independent's battle plan.

It isn't that Vinnie couldn't have given the newcomers a run for their money. His versatility and his adaptability in meeting new changes have been salient characteristics of his editorship. Doyle's Independent has sat astride the great middle-market of Ireland, rural and urban. At the serious end of the market, he has had to compete with the well-resourced Irish Times for the influential and affluent AB classes. At the other end, he has had to defend against the encroachments of the red-top tabloids as they have nibbled away at his younger readers, both male and female.

True, he has been backed by superb marketing and promotional operations. There are free Indos with breakfast in fast food chains. There are bulk sales of the Indo everywhere. The simultaneous publication of both broadsheet and tabloid formats has broadened the newspaper's spread. But to have held the circulation at around 160,000 is a remarkable editorial achievement.

The advent of Associated to the daily market is a full frontal attack on the Independent's core market. The Daily Mail formula of snappy news, slick lifestyle features, consumer angles, sharp comment, comprehensive sport and lively entertainment is tailored perfectly for the C1 and C2 readers who are the mainstay of the Irish Independent. The red-top tabloids may take away some of the Independent's starter-course of D1s and D2s. The Irish Times may take the larger share of the affluent ABs. But an Irish Daily Mail will seek to steal away the Independent's staple main-course.

Enter Gerard O'Regan, ushering in an era in which the Independent will increasingly be obliged to focus on its middle-market. It will concentrate resources, energies and imagination where the attack is most vigorous and most dangerous. For all that O'Regan says otherwise, it seems logical – perhaps inevitable – that the broadsheet edition will be wound up and that the Irish Independent will become wholly tabloid in format.

O'Regan has been man-and-boy an Independent stalwart. He has edited the Evening Herald and the Star. He has held half a dozen executive posts at the Independent. He will work well with the internal allies and supports that a modern, competing editor needs – the heads of sales, marketing, circulation, promotion and product development.

There must be real apprehension at Independent News and Media over the pending onslaught by Associated. The new Metro and possibly the Daily Mail, is to be printed by the Irish Times Ltd. This has clearly angered INM. Gavin O'Reilly took the opportunity at INM's annual general meeting last month to warn The Irish Times that facilitating Associated's Metro was likely to take young, urban readers from The Irish Times itself. Industry insiders are doubtful. A good Metro will take some readers from right across the spectrum. But the greater threat must be to the Independent. The Irish Times might lose a few sales. But it has a fat printing contract with the prospect of more ahead.

A measure of Independent's apprehension was the publication in The Sunday Independent, 25 September, of an extraordinary (unsigned) rant against the Daily Mail, headed "Anti-Irish newspaper plans to launch edition here". Such fatwahs are rare nowadays in Independent titles. When Vinnie Doyle had such "messages" for his readers, they were usually delivered in the Independent under the pseudonym Garret O'Connor.

"For decades it has published some of the most virulently anti-Irish journalism in Britain and in recent years sneeringly described this country as a land 'based on the pig and the potato'," the article ran.

"Now Associated Newspapers, publishers of the loss-making Ireland On Sunday is bringing its quintessentially English Daily Mail newspaper to Ireland where it hopes to pass itself off as a native title.

"Reviled by critics in the UK, the Daily Mail is to be re-launched in Ireland ... to target the Irish, often the butt of its middle-England prejudices."

"...Its anti-Irish tone has been unrelenting, whether it has been negative stories about the drinking exploits of the Irish football team or the State funerals of Ireland's founders."

One wouldn't need to be Professor Anthony Clare to read the fear and loathing in that. Or the resolve to fight the invaders on the beaches.

Conor Brady is Editor Emeritus of The Irish Times. He is a senior teaching fellow at the Graduate School of Business UCD where he lectures in modern media