Media&Marketing: UK tabloids circulating in Ireland have suffered a major erosion of their sales in the last year with freesheets the most likely cause of the trend, at least on weekdays.
Figures for October -released by ABC in the UK - show that the Sun, the Mirror, the News of the World and the People haemorrhaging sales, despite intense promotional activity during the period by some of these titles.
While the first two papers - the Sun and the Mirror - are published on weekdays like the freesheets, the cause of falling sales for the other two - the News of the World and the People - is harder to discern because there are no freesheets published on Sunday.
The most likely explanation is that the Star now has a Sunday edition and this is impacting on the News of the World and the People. The oldest Irish tabloid of them all - the Sunday World - is clearly also operating in the background.
While competition from freesheets Metro and Herald AM seems to be eating into the sales of the UK-owned tabloids on weekdays, the homegrown Star appears to have avoided this threat so far.
Its sales during the week rose by 941 copies to 99,884, while the Sunday edition was up 11,320 copies at 65,290.
While the People, News of the World and Sun have been pouring resources and Irish content into their editions over the last five years, it does not appear to be enough, based on the latest figures.
The Sun fell from 117,109 to 107,821, a drop of 9,288 sales, while the News of the World dropped from 173,541 to 163,085, a loss of 10,456 in sales.
Tabloids traditionally have a younger readership and this is precisely the same group targeted by the freesheets.
The other trend germane to the latest figures is the amount of readers double purchasing on a Sunday is larger than during the week.
But with an extra title, the Star Sunday, in the marketplace, this has probably squeezed out the News of the World and the Sunday People.
The managing director of the Irish Daily Star, Paul Cooke, said that his staff had fought off opposition from the Daily Mirror and the Sun, in addition to dismissing any threats from the freesheets and the Daily Mail may have caused.
Meanwhile, another development in the UK will probably worry all newspapers in Ireland.
The agency AFA O'Meara reported this week that the UK newspaper advertising market has been dealt "a major blow" by recent news that the UK government is planning to move most of its recruitment advertising to online media in an effort to save money.
The UK government's advertising is thought to account for around 12 per cent of the UK recruitment market, worth €1.8 billion.
Among the papers most affected by the switch could be the Guardian, which has cornered the national newspaper market in terms of public sector jobs.
McConnells agency bounces back
McConnells, Ireland's largest independent ad agency, has reversed some its recent contract losses by picking up accounts for Lyons Tea, Stolichnaya, the Russian vodka, while also retaining the Office of Tobacco Control account.
The award of the Lyons account will be particularly pleasing to McConnells - almost 40 years ago it launched the famous Lyons Tea Minstrels and it has held the account twice since that time.
"This is a case of third time lucky," said Jarlath Jennings, McConnells group managing director.
"Lyons is a great brand with a fantastic tradition in Ireland. McConnells handled the brand when the famous jingle was launched and the brand became synonymous with the minstrels. It is now with pleasure that we welcome the brand back for the next exciting phase of its development."
The agency will be helping to advertise the Russian vodka brand, Stolichnaya, which is owned in the Irish market by Irish Distillers.
Its below-the-line company McConnells Fusion has also won a new client in Microsoft Xbox. Below-the-line advertising employs a variety of methods including direct mail, sponsorship, merchandising and trade shows.
McConnells and its media buying arm, MCM, has suffered several setbacks over the last year including losing the Masterfoods, Kelloggs and National Lottery accounts.
Irish firm features in UK's top 10 PR list
Meanwhile, Dublin communications and investor relations firm K Capital Source features in PR Week's top ten list of public relations advisers for British-linked deals in October. The company's work on Arcapita's €2.4 billion offer for Viridian and Westcoast's €15 million purchase of Horizon Technology's Clarity Ireland unit was enough for it to secure a place on a list dominated by big-beast public relations firms in London.
