The owners of the Clare People newspaper in Co Clare have unveiled plans to a distribute a new weekly freesheet to 25,000 homes in the county.
The tabloid Clare People Weekender will be published every Friday from September while the Clare People, also a tabloid, will continue to appear every Tuesday. The new title will be printed by Johnston Press, owner of the Limerick Leader.
In business since mid-2005, the Clare People was set up by businessmen Dómhnal Slattery and Seán Lyne to challenge the Clare Champion, the 103-year-old incumbent in the county. The Clare Champion is published on a Friday.
Formerly linked to Guinness Peat Aviation, Mr Slattery made his money as a co-founder in 1995 of International Aircraft Management, which was acquired for a multi-million sum in 2001 by Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Weekender's editor, Gerry Collinson, said the freesheet will run to 40 pages, concentrating mainly on social and lifestyle news. This contrasts with the 110-page Clare People, which costs €1.50 and is news-driven. The current circulation of that title is 10,700.
"We'd be earmarking, between print and distribution operations, somewhere between €500,000 and €600,000 a year," Mr Collison said of the investment in the freesheet.
The distribution network for the freesheet will include all the major population areas in Co Clare including Shannon, Kilrush, Ennis, Clarecastle, Milltown Malbay and Ennistymon.
Mr Slattery said: "With current ABC figures of over 10,000 for the Clare People each Tuesday combined with a freesheet circulation of 25,000 on Friday, we will have the potential to deliver almost 100,000 readers to our rapidly expanding advertising base."
The recent preliminary figures for the census showed population growth to 110,800 in Co Clare. The company believes that the construction of the Ennis bypass has the potential to increase the county's population significantly, as the road improvement will put the town within easier commuting distance of Galway and Limerick cities.
