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Newstalk is a talk radio station, whose programming typically comprises interviews, discussions, and debates with prominent figures from a variety of fields covering areas such as current affairs, politics, business, sports, entertainment, and more. Many of their hosts are media figures well-known to the Irish public. As of March 2023 that station had an audience share of 7%.


The station launched as Newstalk 106 in 2002, as a regional station covering the Dublin area. In 2006, the station rebranded as Newstalk, a talk radio station with national coverage.


Newstalk was purchased by Communicorp in 2008. Ownership transferred again in 2021, when Communicorp was bought by Bauer Media, and became Bauer Media Audio Ireland.

Key Facts

Audience Share10.6%
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageNational
Content TypeFree
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

Ownership

Ownership StructureNewstalk is owned by Bauer Media Audio Ireland (formerly Communicorp), a subsidiary of Bauer Media Group Ltd.
Bauer Media Group Ltds is owned by Yvonne Bauer (85%), and her sisters Saskia Bauer (5%), Nicola Bauer (5%) and Mirja Bauer (5%)
Voting RightsN/A
Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups

Facts

Founding Year2002
Founder
  • Missing Data
CEO
  • Chris Doyle
    Is currently the interim CEO of Bauer Media Ireland. His career in Irish radio began in 1999 when he became the Operations Manager of East Coast FM. He joined Communicorp in 2002, where he was the CEO of Spin 1038 until 2008. He subsequently served as the CEO of Dublin’s 98fm from 2008 until 2013. Between 2014 and 2021, he worked in a number of positions at Today FM and Newstalk 106 – 108, and in 2021 became Group Operations Director Ireland for the Bauer Media Group. He is the Chairperson of the IMRO Radio award, and a member of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland’s board of directors.
Editor-In-Chief
  • Patricia Monahan
    Has worked for Newstalk since 2002 where she initially worked as a researcher on Lunchtime with Damien Kiberd before going on to produce the Lunchtime News programme for two years. She was centrally involved in the station’s national launch and rebrand in September 2006, and has been Managing Editor of the station since 2017. She has been a board member of Learning Waves Skillnet, a training provider for the Independent Commercial Radio Sector in Ireland, since 2016, and has been the chairperson since August 2022.
ContactNewstalk HQ
Marconi House, Digges Lane
Dublin 2
info@newstalk.com
+353 (0) 1 644 5100
www.newstalk.com
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta DataAudience Share taken from the 2023 Joint National Listenership Research Survey, looking at “yesterday listenership” of 15+ population.

Revenue, operating profit, and advertising revenue not available for individual stations.

Information about Voting Rights of owners unavailable.

At launch in 2002, Newstalk 106 (as it was then called) was owned by several members of the ILR (Independent Local Radio) group, including 98FM, FM104, Clare FM, Carlow Kildare Radio, LMFM, East Coast Radio, South East Radio and WLR FM, along with Setanta.

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