null | Media Ownership Monitor Ireland

The Echo is the only regional newspaper in the Irish market that is printed on a daily basis (Monday to Saturday). It is distributed to the Munster region but its core reader base is in the Cork city area, Ireland’s second largest city.

On average 61,000 people read The Echo print edition every day. The Echo focuses on local news in the Cork city region and its surroundings. Coverage includes news, politics, entertainment, sport, business and lifestyle content. There is a particular focus on local sport coverage from primary school to senior levels.

In 2018 The Irish TImes Group acquired The Echo. This ended ties with the Crosbie family which had endured via Thomas Crosbie Holdings and subsequently Landmark Media since the establishment of the paper in 1892. Evening Echo Limited is part of Irish Times Regionals which is ultimately owned by Irish Times DAC and Irish Times Trust CLG.
The Cork Evening Echo was first published in 1892 by Thomas Crosbie as an evening paper by the publishers of the Cork Examiner. Originally a broadsheet newspaper it changed to a tabloid format in 1991. In 2019 the name was changed to The Echo and the newspaper began to be published in the morning.

Since 1897 The Evening Echo has also published the annual The Holly Bough Christmas Magazine, described as a Christmas institution for Corkonians.

Key Facts

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

Ownership

Ownership Structure	The Echo 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 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	1892
Founder	Thomas Crosbie In 1892 Thomas Crosbie established The Evening Echo as a sister paper to the Cork Examiner (today the Irish Examiner). Crosbie had taken over ownership of the Cork Examiner following the death of its founder and owner John Francis Maguire.
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	Grainne McGuinness Was appointed editor of The Echo and echolive.ie in 2023 taking over from Maurice Gubbins, who had been editor of The Echo for 20 years.
Other Important People	Dan Linehan General Manager Irish Times Regionals Deirdre Veldon Director (Group Managing Director, The Irish Times Group) Michael Sheehan Director (CFO, The Irish Times Group)
Contact	The Echo, Linn Dubh Assumption Road, Blackpool T23 RCH6 Cork +353 (0) 21 4272722 www.echolive.ie

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

Meta Data	Audience data is available via the media sales pages on the echolive.ie website, this is sourced from Kantar TGI 2022 survey data. This is a biannual nationally representative survey of c.4,000 residents in the Republic of Ireland on media consumption, consumer behaviour and social attitudes. In 2019 The Echo 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	About Us Page, The Echo, Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 Advertising, The Echo, Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 Irish Newsaper Archive, Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 FAME Database, Financial Analysis Made Easy. Includes: Company accounts, ratios, activities, ownership and management for the largest 2.6 million UK and Irish companies, summary information for a further 1 million smaller businesses.

Meta Data

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

In 2019 The Echo 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