As Irish advertisers realise that they are getting little or nothing for their advertising investment in Plastic Paddy tabloids in the US and Britain it looks certain the the Irish Voice in New York, edited by recently rejected want-to-be Irish President Niall O'Dowd will followed the Irish Post into the distbin of tabloid history. (Plastic Paddy is a reference to thos people who have not lived in Ireland for many years, yet believe that they can make authoritive comment about Irish Affairs also known as Gab-shites).
The biggest selling Irish community newspaper in Britain, the Irish Post , is understood to have gone into liquidation.
Established in 1970 by Clare-born journalist Breandán Mac Lua and accountant Tony Beatty, the Irish Post employs 12 full-time employees.
Berkshire-based FPM Accountants has been appointed liquidator to the newspaper by owner Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) and the final edition was published this week.
The newspaper’s mixture of national stories and community news was considered critical in giving the Irish in Britain a voice and also helped to forge a sense of collective identity.
The Irish Post , which was published on a bi-weekly basis, was popular in areas of Britain with large Irish populations such as London, Manchester and Birmingham. The paper traditionally received a major proportion of its advertising from Irish-based companies. Its main rival was the Irish World .
The newspaper was acquired by Thomas Crosbie Holdings, publisher of The Examiner and The Sunday Business Post , in 2003 for £1.7 million sterling from Jefferson Smurfit.
It had an ABC audited circulation of over 31,400 copies at the time it was acquired by TCH but that had fallen to 21,794 by the end of 2008 and is now at about 17,100.
Cork-based TCH reported operating losses of €2.95 million for 2009 last November, and said it expected to be loss-making in fiscal 2010.
Last year TCH sought two rounds of pay cuts at the Sunday Business Post while Irish Examiner and Evening Echo staff were told they faced a 10 per cent reduction in pay and a cut of as much as 50 per cent in their pensions as a result of a €20 million deficit in the company's defined benefit pension scheme.
Killarney newspaper The Kingdom , which was also owned by TCH, closed down earlier this year with the loss of 11 jobs.
Newspaper readership in Ireland declined by 3.1 per cent year on year, according to figures published by the Joint National Readership Survey earlier this month.
The Examiner saw its average readership fall by 17.16 per cent, or 35,000 a day, to 169,000 while the Sunday Business Post recorded the biggest readership decline among Sunday titles with its readership falling by 29,000 a week, or 15 per cent, to 164,000.
