MR AENGUS FANNING is the editor of the State's largest-selling newspaper, the Sunday Independent. Readers are offered a newspaper based on the personalities of its writers.
Mr Fanning (53) comes from a prominent local newspaper family, which owns the Midland Tribune, in Birr, Co Offaly. He was brought up in Tralee, Co Kerry, where he went to the local Christian Brothers. He excelled at sport and was an extremely promising Gaelic footballer.
After working as a journalist with the Midland Tribune, he joined the Independent newspaper group in 1969 as a reporter. He rose from reporter to agriculture writer, to news analysis editor.
In January 1984, he was the surprise appointment as editor of the Sunday Independent. The plan was to develop the newspaper as a quality Sunday in opposition to the Sunday Tribune.
The path he took, however, was a unique one, creating a broadsheet "tabloid" that would offer readers Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien or historian Dr Ronan Fanning, alongside Terry Keane and Eamon Dunphy. It offered social gossip and what many commentators believed was a mix of sleaze and purience.
Ten years ago, the circulation was 217,000. The last audited figures put weekly sales at 336,849. While there was a dip in the previous six months, the graph has been mainly on an upwards curve since Mr Fanning became editor.
Mr Fanning is said to be a passionate man. He has a temper but it calms as quickly as it flares up. Editorial meetings can be fraught. However, he does not bear grudges and his senior staff hold him in great respect.
Mr Fanning developed the idea of the personality journalist, where the byline - even the photograph of the writer - was as important as what was being written about. In recent years, the editor has taken on a more public role, interviewing a number of prominent people, such as Mr John Hume.
Efforts have been made to raise the paper's reputation. Investigative journalist Veronica Guerin was part of such a move. She was hired by Mr Fanning to show that the Sunday Independent's mix could include serious journalism alongside the newspaper's more traditional fare.