Irish Examiner

Logo of Irish Examiner

Irish Examiner is a daily broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday. It is one of two national daily titles published by the Irish Times Group. Editorial and operations for the Irish Examiner continue to be based in Cork city.


Founded in Cork 1841 by John Francis Maguire the paper’s initial focus was on the promotion of Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic Emancipation campaign. In 1872 Thomas Crosbie, a reporter and editor of the newspaper, 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, ending the association between the Crosbie family and the Irish Examiner.


Originally titled the Cork Examiner, in 1996 the name was changed to The Examiner and subsequently in 2000 to the Irish Examiner. Traditionally the newspaper was viewed as a regional or Munster paper. More recently the title has moved to broaden its reach to a national audience. Currently 379,000 people read the print edition every week.

Key Facts

Audience ShareMissing Data
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageNational
Content TypePaid
Active Transparency
company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable

Ownership

Ownership StructureThe Irish Examiner 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 RightsAll 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.
  • Irish Times Trust

    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.

Media Companies / Groups

Facts

Founding Year1841
Founder
  • John Francis Maguire
    Established the newspaper in 1841. A lawyer and politician, Maguire established the Cork Examiner to support Daniel O’Connell’s movement for Catholic Emancipation.
CEO
  • Karen O’Donoghue
    Took on the role of Managing Director for the Irish Examiner and The Echo in 2023. She joined the Irish Examiner marketing department in 2003 overseeing national marketing campaigns and branding strategies for both titles. Karen O’Donoghue also led the implementation of data analytics and the development of the Irish Examiner subscription service.
Editor-In-Chief
  • Tom Fitzpatrick
    Was appointed editor of the Irish Examiner in 2019. He started his career in The Echo in 2007, before moving to London to take up a digital strategy role with Emap’s Construction News, where he was promoted to News Editor (2013), Deputy Editor (2014) and Editor in 2017. He returned to the Irish Examiner Group as Editor of the Irish Examiner succeeding Allan Prosser.
Other Important People
  • Deirdre Veldon
    Group Managing Director The Irish Times Group.
  • 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.
ContactThe Irish Examiner
Assumption Road, Blackpoo
T23 RCH6 Cork
+353 21 4272722
www.irishexaminer.com
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta Data

Audience data is available via the media sales pages on the Irish Examiner website, this is sourced from Kantar TGI 2022 survey data. This is a biannual nationally representative survey of 4,000 residents in the Republic of Ireland on media consumption, consumer behaviour and social attitudes.

In 2019 the Irish Examiner discontinued its participation in the ABC circulation measurement programme following the withdrawal of Mediahuis titles from this programme the previous year.

Revenue details are reported for the overall group not for individual titles.

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.

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.

Sources