Publishers do the sums to see if a newspaper 'as Gaeilge' adds up
Thursday July 23 2009
OBSERVING the consternation surrounding last month's demise of 'Foinse', you could be forgiven for thinking Ireland would be forever deprived of its weekly newspaper as Gaeilge.
But four weeks on, and Foras na Gaeilge has just kicked off the hunt for someone to take over Foinse's mantel, and the Irish language board is "confident" of success.
The new tender offers "up to €400,000" in annual support for a weekly newspaper. The same amount was up for grabs when 'Foinse' scooped its last four-year contract back in March.
Three months later 'Foinse' cited a 75pc drop in advertising and folded its tent, prompting suggestions that Foras should have stumped up more cash to keep the "institution" alive.
"We didn't discuss increasing the funding, no," says Foras boss Ferdie Mac an Fhailligh. "We believe it can be done at this level. 'Foinse' was very profitable for a long time."
The contention is backed up by the latest accounts for 'Foinse', which show accumulated earnings of €618,000 at the end of last August.
But advertising times have changed dramatically since then, and while Foinse's website boasts a circulation of 10,000 the latest figures from ABC are closer to the 4,000 mark.
Despite the new realities, Mac an Fhailligh says he's already had interest from a "number of parties", before the tender has even been formally advertised. "We believe we can find someone new," he adds.
'Foinse' ran as a standalone magazine, owned by Aer Arann's Padraig O Ceidigh and operated from Connemara. Those most likely to be interested in taking over the mantel are contract publishers, and media players with an existing Gaeilge presence.
Ashville business development boss Ken Lanigan says it's something he'd "be interested in", since Ashville already does state contract work for the Oireachtas and Department of An Taoiseach.
"We'd like to see publication continue," he adds. "But we'd have to look at the economics to see if it could make sense."
Bringing the paper into a bigger publishing house would generate savings on everything from printing to marketing, he adds. The new publisher would be unlikely to replicate Foinse's overhead of 10 staff journalists.
Fellow contract publishers Harmonia and Commercial Media, however, this week ruled themselves out of the race. Other potential runners are thought to include tg4.
