A busy news year
Conor Brady on the scandals and challenges that faced the Irish media in 2005
It was a year of living dangerously for some in the news media – especially in print. And yet as the year ends, many issues remain unresolved and some strategically significant contests are only in their opening stages. The journalistic debacle of the year was the coverage of the death of former TD Liam Lawlor in a Moscow car crash. The Sunday Independent took the brunt of public outrage for the sheer scale and the crassness of its presentation. It was a case of the bigger they come, the harder they fall. The well-resourced Sindo threw everything it had at the story – news, photographs, features pages, columnists.
In a memorable but grotesque phrase, one columnist wrote of Liam Lawlor as having died the way he lived, "hustling, in a hurry, in aMercedes".
The Sindo richly deserved its excoriation. But it is worth remembering that it was not alone in its disgrace. The respected Observer of London, using only slightly less lurid language, told the same false story about the circumstances of Liam Lawlor's death. Others simply lifted the story. At the time, this column made the point that an editor is at his or her most vulnerable when the newspaper relies on the word of a correspondent in the field – especially if the correspondent has a good track-record.
The (unpublished) report of the internal inquiry spread blame around among the editorial staff. But don't expect any dramatic re-formulation of the Sindo's content or approach. It is the largest single cash-cow in the weekend market. Independent News and Media (INM) is not going to do anything to damage its revenues and share-earnings.
Has it had any long-term effect on the Sunday Independent? We shall have to await the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for the half year ending 31 December to find out. The word among Independent staffers has been that sales did suffer in the weeks after the false publication. But the underlying trend in the newspaper's circulation has been downward for some time. It may be difficult to discern a "Lawlor effect" in the ABC figures.
Meanwhile, the war of the Dublin free-sheets did not get beyond its initial skirmishing rounds. The most hotly contested ground was in the courts, where Independent News and Media and Associated slogged it out for exclusive use of the title "Metro". In the end, as usual, only the lawyers won, with the two contestants settling on a compromise arrangement.
The dissipation of energies in the legal tussle may in part explain the limp editorial performance of the two contending free-sheets, INM's Herald AM and Associated's Metro. Neither has yet shown any significant editorial innovation or journalistic flair, contenting themselves with the traditional free-sheet mix of TV, sport, crime news and crosswords. ABC figures released earlier this month show Herald AM distributing just over 66,000 copies daily average with Associated's Metro doing just over 55,000 during November.
All of this must suggest that the free-sheet contest has not yet really got under way. Industry insiders believe that success will be claimed by the free-sheet that can reach 100,000 copies a day and hold at that level. In the meantime, advertisers will be cautious and space will be sold at heavily discounted rates. It must be doubtful however if either title can reach this sort of circulation without raising its editorial game. Experience of successful free-sheets abroad has shown that they really come into their own when they start breaking stories and offering fresh, attractive feature content – and good columnists.
In broadcasting, one of the most interesting developments of the year has been the consolidation of Newstalk 106. As RTÉ's Radio 1 figures contract, local stations inevitably benefit. The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) shows Newstalk pegged at around 4 per cent of the adult audience. But anecdotally there is evidence that it is gaining in listeners, in credibility and influence. Because the base figures are so small, this may not yet be reflected in JNLR findings.
And there are ways of measuring success other than JNLR. Newstalk swept the boards in the relevant categories at the PPI radio awards in October. What it does it generally does well and it is being recognised.
Newstalk is not yet profitable. And it will probably not become profitable for as long as it remains a Dublin-only station. Principal shareholder, Denis O'Brien, will be looking to 2006 to secure one of the additional State-wide licenses. With economies of scale and a wider revenue landscape, Newstalk will almost certainly come right. And when it does, an influential new player – and a very valuable new property – will be recognised among the national news media.
Among the national dailies, the most significant news was the retirement of Irish Independent editor, Vinnie Doyle and his replacement by Gerard O'Regan. Within days of taking the chair, O'Regan was turning out a bolder, more in-your-face Indo with more impact, bigger headlines and an even more populist edge than in the Doyle years. The Irish Independent has to clear the decks and get into battle order for the launch of an "Oirish" Daily Mail, reportedly due in March. The contest for the middle-ground of the Irish daily newspaper market will be the biggest test of O'Regan's career – and that of his boss, Gavin O'Reilly.
I wasn't there, obviously, but I imagine there was dancing between the desks in some offices at the Irish Times when the direction in which O'Regan had set his course became clear. At its best, Doyle's Independent was able to worry D'Olier Street from time to time. With the Indo squaring up to the Daily Mail's challenge in the mid-market, the Irish Times may feel that it can relax somewhat at the so-called "serious" end of the market.
Conor Brady is Editor Emeritus of The Irish Times. He is a senior teaching fellow at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, UCD, where he lectures in modern media. His book Up with the Time is published by Gill and Macmillan