The Herald

The Herald is a daily newspaper, which although primarily focused on Dublin issues, is circulated nationally, with just over 21,000 daily readers (2020). As a mid-market, tabloid newspaper, content of the Herald combines news and entertainment coverage, with a particular focus on politics, crime and local interest stories for the Dublin area.

First published as The Evening Herald on the 19th December 1891, one day after the launch of the Irish Daily Independent,the paper proclaimed itself as a voice in the fight for the independence of Irish men and women. The newspaper was created to promote a pro-Parnellite position following a split in the Irish Parliamentary Party, at a time when the countries leading newspaper was the anti-Parnellite Freeman’s Journal.

The paper existed as an evening broadsheet paper for 91 years, before transitioning to a tabloid format in 1982. In March 2013 The Evening Herald became the Herald, adjusting its publishing schedule and becoming a morning paper. In March 2017, it was announced that owners Independent News Media (INM) were merging the Sunday World and The Herald newsrooms, although both publications kept their branding. This merger occurred as part of a broader strategy to pivot away from print content, and to produce more digital output. This strategy, which led to a number of job losses for INM editorial staff, was condemned by the National Union of Journalists.

Today, The Herald is owned by Mediahuis Ireland, a subsidiary of Mediahuis NV, whose shareholders comprise Mediahuis Partners NV (50.6%), Concentra (32.7%) and VP Exploitatie (16.7%).

In 2023, following the removal of the Herald.ie, and an assessment that print papers will have largely disappeared by 2030, Mediahuis Ireland CEO Peter Vandersmeersch stated that they would no longer be investing in the paper, and that the paper would have to “sink or swim”.

Key Facts

Audience Share	Missing Data
Ownership Type	Private
Geographic Coverage	National
Content Type	Paid
Data Publicly Available	ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

Ownership

Ownership Structure	The Herald is owned by Mediahuis Ireland (Formerly Independent News and Media), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. Mediahuis' largest shareholders include the Belgian Baert Family (29.5%) via their 90% ownership Concentra, the Dutch van Puijenbroek Family (16.7%) via their 100% ownership of VP Exploitatie, and the Belgian Thmoas Leysen (13.25%) via his 26.5.% ownership of Mediahuis Partners NV.
Voting Rights	Missing Data
Individual Owner	Thomas Leysen 13.3 van Puijenbroek Family 16.3 Baert Family 29.5

Media Companies / Groups

Mediahuis NV

Facts

Founding Year	1891
Founder	Missing Data
CEO	Peter Vandersmeersch Former editor of Flemish daily newspaper De Standaard from 1999 to 2010. Subsequently the editor-in-chief and director of Amsterdam-based daily NRC Handlesblad from 2010 to 2019. A well-known commentator on Belgian and Dutch radio and television, has authored books on the French president François Mitterrand and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. His wife, Francine Cunningham, works in Brussels as a regulatory and public affairs director for international law firm Bird & Bird, advising companies on EU regulation in the technology, content and media sectors.
Editor-In-Chief	Missing Data MIssing Data
Contact	Independent House 27 - 32 Talbot Street D01 X2E1 Dublin 1 info@independent.ie +353 (0)1 705 5333 www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin ( Formerly Herald.ie, now redirects)

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

Headlines	Dublin evening paper to change title and be sold in the mornings (2013), The Guardian (2013), Accessed on 18 July 2023 INM to merge ‘Herald’ and ‘Sunday World’ newsrooms (2017), Irish Times (2017), Accessed on 18 July 2023 Stopping the presses (2023), Business Post (2023), Accessed on 18 July 2023 Daily printed newspapers will disappear within next decade, says Mediahuis Ireland boss (2023), Irish Times (2023) Accessed on 18 July 2023
Meta Data	Although a number of sources confirm The Herald launched as The Evening Herald in 1891, there is no clear information about who founded the publication. Audience share total taken from publisher statement, reflects average sales from January to June 2020. Audience share percentage calculated by taking this number as a percentage of total audience of 2,580,000 as used by Kantar Media (65% of 16+ Population). No information about voting rights of Shareholders available. Revenue, operating Profit and Advertising not available at level of Publication. 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	INM’s acquisition by Mediahuis approved by competition body, Irish Times (2019), Accessed on 18 July 2023 INM to Rebrand as Mediahuis Ireland from May, Irish Times (2021), Accessed on 18 July 2023 Mediahuis profits fall by 44%, Irish Examiner (2023), Accessed on 18 July 2023 Vandermeersch named as new Mediahuis Ireland CEO, Independent (2022), Accessed on 18 July 2023 Daily printed newspapers will disappear within next decade, says Mediahuis Ireland boss, Accessed on 18 July 2023

Headlines

Meta Data

Although a number of sources confirm The Herald launched as The Evening Herald in 1891, there is no clear information about who founded the publication.

Audience share total taken from publisher statement, reflects average sales from January to June 2020.

Audience share percentage calculated by taking this number as a percentage of total audience of 2,580,000 as used by Kantar Media (65% of 16+ Population).

No information about voting rights of Shareholders available.

Revenue, operating Profit and Advertising not available at level of Publication.

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