BreakingNews.ie

Breakingnews.ie is an online only news publication with freely available content, it does not have a paywall or reader subscriber offering. It is owned and operated by The Irish Times Group, and was included in the acquisition of Landmark media by the Group in 2018.

Latest data for online readership of breakingnews.ie is 2.7 million users per month (Google Analytics 2021) with 88% of readers using mobile devices to access the website. Breakingnews.ie also has a News App available to readers. In 2020 the website underwent a major redesign including changes to navigation and branding.

Breakingnews.ie includes national, local and international content in print and video formats to readers. It aims to publish breaking news stories in a shorter format for readers than other titles.

Key Facts

Audience Share	Missing Data
Ownership Type	Private
Geographic Coverage	National
Content Type	Free
Active Transparency	company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable

Ownership

Ownership Structure	breakingnews.ie is owned and operated by The Irish Times DAC which is ultimately owned by The Irish Times Trust CLG. The company has no shareholders but is managed by two boards, Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG and The Board of The Irish Times DAC, members of which are appointed by the Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG.
Voting Rights	All directors have a single vote in any decisions made. In the event where there is a disagreement, the three directors nominated to the board by the Trust have an effective veto where they have 50% of all votes plus 1. However, this can only be used in exceptional circumstances where a Board of Directors proposal contravenes the objectives, principles and standards set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust. In this event lawyers for the Trust and the Board must agree that the proposal constitutes a ‘significant policy’ under the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust.
Individual Owner	Board of Directors of The Irish Times DAC The Irish Times Group is structured as a Trust and governance is the responsibility of The Irish Times Trust and The Irish Times Board of Directors. In the case of The Irish Times the trust structure is used to ensure that profits generated are invested back into the business to develop journalism and maintain independence. For the purposes of this project we categorise the chairs of these boards as ‘owners’ due to their prominent position and list all members of each board. 1 Irish Times Trust The Irish Times Group is structured as a Trust and governance is the responsibility of The Irish Times Trust and The Irish Times Board of Directors. In the case of The Irish Times the trust structure is used to ensure that profits generated are invested back into the business to develop journalism and maintain independence. For the purposes of this project we categorise the chairs of these boards as ‘owners’ due to their prominent position and list all members of each board. 99

Media Companies / Groups

The Irish Times DAC

Facts

Founding Year	Missing Data
Founder	Thomas Crosbie Holdings Thomas Crosbie Holdings, owners and publishers of what is now known as the Irish Examiner launched www.breakingnews.ie in the early 2000s (no exact date could be found). The Crosbie family had a long running association with the Irish Examiner, in 1872 Thomas Crosbie, a reporter and editor of the The Cork Examiner, took ownership which would remain for five generations of the Crosbie family under the Thomas Crosbie Holdings company (TCH). In 2013 TCH went into receivership with media interests being sold to Landmark Media, a company backed by Ted and Tom Crosbie, descendants of Thomas Crosbie. In 2018 under Liam Kavanagh, Managing Director of The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times acquired most of the media interests of Landmark Media, including breakingnews.ie.
CEO	Deirdre Veldon Deirdre Veldon became Managing Director of The Irish Times Group in 2022, prior to this she was Deputy Editor of The Irish Times and a member of The Irish Times DAC Board since 2017. She joined The Irish Times in 1996 and held the roles of editor of ireland.com and irishtimes.com.
Editor-In-Chief	Michael McAteer Editor breakingnews.ie, studied Journalism in Dublin City University and joined The Irish Times in 2000 working as an online journalist. In 2001 he became an assistant news editor and in 2012 was appointed Assistant Business, innovation and motoring editor. In 2020 he was appointed Editor of breakingnews.ie.
Other Important People	John Hegarty Chairman of the Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG, Fellow Emeritus and former Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Shay Garvey Chairman of the Board of The Irish Times DAC. Co-founder of Frontline Ventures; adviser to the EBRD venture capital programme; Chair of Genio, the Service Reform Fund.
Contact	24-28 Tara Street D02 CX89 Dublin 2 +353 (0) 1-9203900 www.irishtimes.com

Revenue	Missing Data
Operating Profit	Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)	Missing Data
Market Share	Missing Data

Meta Data	10.8 million monthly users (Ireland & international, source GA 2018). There is currently no standard audience measurement available for print and online news titles in Ireland. Individual titles publish data on readership or users but measurement parameters and sources vary between organisations, therefore it is not possible to report an accurate audience share for the purposes of this project. Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups.
Sources	breakingnews.ie Media Pack, breakingnews.ie, Accessed on 11 October 2023 M/17/068 – Irish Times/Sappho (Irish Examiner), Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (Ireland), Accessed on 15 August 2023

Meta Data

10.8 million monthly users (Ireland & international, source GA 2018).

There is currently no standard audience measurement available for print and online news titles in Ireland. Individual titles publish data on readership or users but measurement parameters and sources vary between organisations, therefore it is not possible to report an accurate audience share for the purposes of this project.

Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups.

Sources