Businessman Denis O'Brien has urged Independent News and Media (INM) to "share ideas and move on" with making "serious decisions" about the company's future.
Speaking in Galway today, where he attended the
Connacht Tribunecentenary conference, Mr O'Brien said that ultimately the banks and the bondholders would determine the future of IN&M.
He was responding to questions about his revised offer to INM bondholders this week as an alternative to that proposed by INM chief executive Gavin O'Reilly.
While stating that he would not comment on the new proposal, Mr O'Reilly said that if he was "John Smith" and was investing €100 million cash in INM he would have got a "very different response".
"No one has offered to invest cash in this business," Mr O'Brien said. He believed he had put together a "very strong proposal" which would reduce the bank debt and ensure "there is enough money to run the company properly".
The existing INM plan would turn it into a "zombie publicly quoted company", and it would not recover from its serious position. He urged Gavin O'Reilly, who he accused of turning his interest in the company into a "personal thing", to reconsider.
"We can work with Gavin O'Reilly to make a strong company," he said. Ultimately, the future lay with the banks and bondholders, he said.
Addressing the conference in NUI, Galway (NUIG), Mr O'Brien said that newspapers had not embraced the have not embraced the internet sufficiently. "When Mr Rupert Murdoch was "finished" with his bid to charge for content, "people will click and pay", Mr O'Brien noted.
Other participants at the conference were Prof Roy Greenslade of City University, London and media correspondent of the
Guardian; editor of the
Irish Voiceand irishcentral.com Niall O'Dowd; BBC head of nations and regions Pat Loughrey and
Connacht Tribuneeditor Dave O'Connell.
Also speaking were Harry McGee, Deirdre Veldon and Conor Pope of
The Irish Times, John Walshe, education editor of the
Irish Independent, former
Connacht Tribuneeditor John Cunningham and editor of the
Longford LeaderSheila Reilly.
