Until three years ago, Independent News & Media dominated the regional newspaper market in Ireland, with its chain of 10 titles extending from Dundalk and Drogheda in the north-east to Wicklow and Wexford in the south-east, to Kerry in the south-west.
But now there has been an increasing pace of consolidation in an industry which has benefited more than most from the strength of the economy and operates on margins between 25 and 30 per cent.
Strong advertising revenue, buoyant circulation and loyal local readership have made regional newspapers attractive takeover targets. Groups such as Scottish Radio Holdings, Mirror Group and Thomas Crosbie have been prepared to pay top prices for the better quality titles.
Trinity Mirror became the first overseas group to buy into Irish regional papers when it paid £18.2 million in July 1998 for the Derry Journal, which has four titles in Derry and Donegal. Despite its dominance of the market in the north-west, there was astonishment at the time at the price paid by Mirror - more than 20 times earnings.
Trinity Mirror, which owns the Sunday Business Post, also owns the News Letter in the North and is in the process of selling the Belfast Telegraph to Independent, subject to British government approval.
Scottish Radio - which first invested in the North with the acquisition of Morton Newspapers and its 20 local titles and also Downtown Radio - also made its first move into regional newspapers when it bought the Leitrim Observer for £1 million. The Kilkenny People acquisition, however, is far bigger and has catapulted SRH into the position of second-biggest regional publisher in the Republic, as well as being the biggest publisher in the North.
But the acquisitions have not all come from overseas. Thomas Crosbie, publisher of the Irish Examiner, has challenged Independent's dominance in Kerry with the purchase of the Kingdom. The Cork-based group also owns two other regional titles, the Waterford News & Star in the south-east and the Western People in the west.
The Leinster Leader group has also been expanding and apart from the Leinster Leader in Kildare also publishes the Leinster Express in Laois and the Offaly Tribune. The group also paid £2 million earlier this year for the Dundalk Democrat, a move that challenges Independent's dominance of the market in the north-east.
