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The Sunday Independent (colloquially known as “The Sindo”) is the most widely read Sunday newspaper in the country, with an average of about 150,000 readers per issue (2020). The Sunday Independent provides a comprehensive overview of the week’s news, offering a more leisurely reading experience than the daily publication, putting a greater focus on in-depth analysis and long-form journalism. It is broken up into News, Sport, Business, Property, and Living, as well as a magazine section which includes “Life” (Health, Food, Home, Trends, Travel) and “People and Culture” (Celebrity Interviews, Profiles, TV Listings). Despite maintaining the aesthetics of a broadsheet publication, the Sunday Independent has been described as a Tabloid Broadsheet, and has been criticised for favouring opinion-focused content over news, and occasionally tending towards sensationalism.


The Sunday Independent was first published in 1906 by William Martin Murphy, a prominent Irish businessman and nationalist, as the Sunday publication of the Irish Independent. Similar to its daily counterpart, the Sunday Independent was a Catholic, nationalist and conservative publication. The Sunday independent was run through Murphy’s company Independent Newspapers Limited, which would later become Independent News and Media (INM).


In 1973 control of INM left the Murphy family for the first time, when Kerrygold founder Tony O’Reilly bought a 28% stake in the company, and became CEO and Chairperson. O’Reilly, a former international Rugby Union player often considered to be Ireland’s first billionaire, who would later become chairman of the H.J Heinz Company. Under his leadership, the paper’s politics became more market liberal and economically right of centre.


Ownership was transferred again in May 2012 when Communicorp founder and billionaire Denis O’Brien became the majority shareholder of Independent News and Media (INM), and once more in 2019 when INM was acquired by current owners Mediahuis NV, and became Mediahuis Ireland. Mediahuis NV’s shareholders comprise Mediahuis Partners NV (50.6%), Concentra (32.7%) and VP Exploitatie (16.7%). 

Key Facts

Audience ShareMissing Data
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageNational
Content TypePaid
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

Ownership

Ownership StructureThe Irish Independent 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 RightsMissing Data
Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups

Facts

Founding Year1906
Founder
  • William Martin Murphy
    Was the founder of Independent Newspapers Limited, which would become Independent News and Media in 1973. He is arguably Ireland first „Press Baron“, having bought the Irish Daily Independent in 1900 and merging it with the Daily Nation 1905. This new publication was launched as The Irish Independent, an affordable, mass circulation newspaper. William Martin Murphy also served as a Member of Parliament representing Dublin as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1885 to 1892. A leading promoter of tram development in Ireland, he led Dublin business owners' opposition to the Dublin Transport and General Workers Union 1913 Lockout, for which he earned the nickname William „Murder Murphy“ in the Union Presses.
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
  • Alan English
    Prior to becoming editor of the Sunday Independent, Alan English has been Group Editorial Director with regional media group Iconic Newspapers since 2016. Previous to that, he served as Editor of the Limerick Leader for nine years. English also worked as a senior journalist and sports editor in London for British newspaper The Sunday Times, and is the author of five best-selling rugby books, including the autobiographies of Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll.
ContactIndependent House
27 - 32 Talbot Street
D01 X2E1 Dublin 1
info@independent.ie
353 (0)1 705 5333
www.independent.ie
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta Data

Circulation of 152,516 total taken from a publisher statement, reflects average sales from January to June 2020. Unable to calculate audience share as percentage figures for total Sunday paper sales were unavailable.

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