Media&Marketing: The relationship between the media in Dublin and the city's taxi drivers has occasionally been fraught, but a new magazine is hoping to develop a more harmonious partnership between the two parties.
Pocket Dublin is a new magazine targeting the thousands of people availing of taxis every day.
It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 licensed taxis on the roads, completing an average of five journeys per day.
The new title is effectively an "in-cab" magazine, filled with listings, reviews and vouchers for shops and entertainment venues.
Taxi exteriors in Dublin are already covered in advertisements, but the magazine is hoping to make taxi interiors the new battleground.
Las Vegas was one of the first cities to try the idea and it has proven popular there.
The company behind the magazine, Premier Publishing Ltd, will sell Pocket Dublin for €3, with the taxi driver retaining €2.
The magazine will have an initial print run of 75,000. It will be 64 pages in an A5 size and will be published bi-monthly, although the frequency may increase during summer time.
Premier itself was set up in 1994. It specialises in business to business publishing and conference organisation.
Radio stations tune into JNLR data
Magazine editors and radio presenters are facing an anxious day today when fresh data on both sectors land on desks around Dublin.
The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey will provide details about how national and local radio stations are performing.
Attention is likely to focus on RTÉ One, which has declined over recent years in listenership terms.
The industry will also be taking note of how changes at 2FM, its sister station, have worked out. The decision to move Marty Whelan onto 2FM has been derided by some critics and today will tell whether such a move made sense or not.
The traditional bunfight in Dublin between 98FM and FM104 will also be watched with interest, and over at NewsTalk 106, there will curiosity about Eamon Dunphy's listenership profile.
The magazine data tends to command less headlines, but the market leader, the RTÉ Guide, will be hoping to hold its position from the onslaught of other TV magazines such as TV Now.
Setanta scores with Keane match
Setanta Sports channel was not able to get beyond 1 per cent of national market share last year, but things may be different in 2006.
Despite having rights to a range of eclectic sports, the move by Roy Keane to Celtic may turn out to be the biggest trump card that the station has.
Last Sunday's Celtic versus Rangers game at Ibrox was always going to be popular with Irish audiences, but adding in the volatile personality of Keane appears to have bolstered the audiences further.
Almost 110,000 individuals tuned in to see Roy Keane in action on Sunday. This represented 14.7 per cent of all males watching at the time.
This figure does not include out of home viewing - typically pub viewers - which Setanta are campaigning to have included in the official figures.
The company is also running a specific regional campaign to coincide with their live coverage of Allianz National Football League ties.
Last weekend, Setanta had big screens stationed in prominent retail locations in Cork to publicise the campaign and the marketing drive resulted in over 1,000 subscriptions during the weekend.
Irish film industry upbeat on financing
A conference taking place next week on film financing will occur at a very fortuitous time for the industry.
Recent tax relief changes announced by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen are likely to give Ireland an even greater chance of attracting major international film projects.
The conference is part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, which begins on Thursday, February 23rd. Speaking before the conference, Jim O'Hanlon, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers entertainment and media practice, was upbeat.
The European, Middle-Eastern and Asian movie markets are believed to be worth $27.4 billion (€23 billion) annually, and Mr O'Hanlon predicts that the Irish market will grow to $520 million by 2009 from its 2004 valuation level of $389 million.
There is no doubt that the more generous tax reliefs will play a major part in this.
"On the film production side, the recent Government announcement to significantly increase the relief available for Irish film production should mean that Ireland stays on the agenda as a preferred location for film productions," said Mr O'Hanlon.
