Damages of €90,000 have been awarded against Associated Newspapers Ireland after a woman sued the newspaper publisher for using unlawfully tapped phone conversations in articles.
The court ruled the articles which appeared in Ireland on Sunday (now the Irish Mail on Sunday) were a breach of her constitutional right to privacy.
Paul Drury, currently executive editor at Associated Newspapers' Irish titles, is to become managing editor of the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Pressgazette.co.uk says the new post will include liaising with the soon to be opened Irish Press Council, hiring staff, leader writing and overseeing weekend features.
Above is the common sight of the ‘distributors’ standing side by side handing out Dublin’s two morning freesheets at Heuston Station in Dublin.
The person in the red is distributing Herald AM (Independent News & Media), while the person in blue handing out Metro (Metro International, Associated Newspapers Limited, and the Irish Times).
Irish Daily Mail goes down in price as the Mail announces a price cut from 60c to 30c with the paper standing at 50c for Saturdays and 2euro for the Irish Daily Mail on Sunday edition.
Although reported in other newspapers, the paper announced the cut to its “magnificent readers” on Sunday will an A4 glossy letter from Editor-in-chief Ted Verity. 30c was the launch price just five months ago when the paper was merged with Ireland on Sunday.
On Sunday anonymous or pseudonymous columns in the Irish Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times felt the need to tackle the issues of Irish journalists who blog.
Both newspapers are Irish editions of UK newspapers, and while their parent companies in the UK have built-up decent online presences both web portals for Ireland.
We hope it was all in good fun (possibly in some stretch of the term), as the parent editions of both publications have a number of blogs on their websites; the Times have over 20 and the Mail at least seven. And the Irish edition of the Sunday Times have at least two columnists who also blog.
The Irish edition of News International’s the Sunday Times had a go at the Sunday Tribune's Kevin Rafter and the Irish Examiner's Harry McGee, saying "while there are not enough pages in their respective newspapers to allow the lads full vent, there is too much room on the internet, so both have launched political blogs, presumably so they can publish all the blather their editors cut out".
While in the Irish Mail on Sunday, the media column ‘the Spike’ also had a poke at Kevin Rafter, along with his Tribune colleagues Richard Delevan, and Una Mullally.
UK newspapers have embraced blogs and there are now more Irish journalists who blog, but no Irish newspaper has blogs built into their website. [Feck this internet thing, I think I’m ranting on about newspapers and blogs, again!]
'Red Mum' has informed us, and her readers, that she has been in contact with Metro Ireland and that the issue over the unauthorised use of her photo (pictured above) is now resolved.
The blogger and flickr photographer explained that she was “in contact with Metro yesterday and sent them a link to the orginal flickr pic” adding that “I just received an email back saying payment would shortly be on it's way”
Although some bloggers were almost dismayed over the lifting of the image, one tabloid hack who has done time at a Dublin redtop told Blurred Keys that “it happens all the time”.
Blogs go ducky as Metro apprently uses photos without permission
A well known Irish blogger and Flickr up-loader, 'RedMum’, has said one of her photographs of rubber ducks was published - without permission or credit - on the front page of last Thursday's Metro in Dublin.
Usually spotted in bath tubs, the rubber ducks were in the Liffey for the Today FM Children's Lifeline Duck Race 2006.
When Blurred Keys phoned Metro, the picture desk told us that if the case was as outlined the photographer should contact and invoice them.
The Dublin edition of Metro is backed by Metro International, Associated Newspapers Limited, and the Irish Times. The morning freesheet newspaper is distributed on streets and at Dart and Luas stations. Their offices are with Associated Newspapers Ireland in Ballsbridge.
The Sunday Buinness Post went one further then we did, saying “The Sunday Tribune appears to be ‘‘cyber-squatting’’ on the www.irishmailonsunday.com”.
The Post appears to have little or no proof of this.
Any owner of a domain name (ie irishmailonsunday.com) could redirect it to any domain name (ie tribune.ie).
Meanwhile, the Post reports that on the subject of the News of the World using the Ireland on Sunday [IoS] master head, Associated are “demanding compensation and said it was looking into the matter”.
Also reported is that there has “been no negative feedback from readers or advertisers about Associated Newspapers’ surprising abandonment of the Ireland on Sunday brand”. The question that needs asking is what about former readers?
Blurred Keys has found it surprising that at least a few people (we know of) were willing to buy the Mail controlled IoS, but not the rehashed newspaper under Mail branding. It is hard at this point to determine how many people out there have taken this approach, but - as other commentators have said - the Mail brand was weaker then IoS.
Irishmailonsunday.com which uses the name of the recently launched Irish Mail On Sunday, redirects to the website of the Sunday Tribune, a competitor (vie here). Irish Mail On Sunday replaced Ireland On Sunday.
The registration records for the domain name states the ‘Registrant’ is “irish media m” in Dundalk. The only named contact is Stiofain Mac Dhaibhead.
Attempts to contact the named person in the domain registration, and the Irish Mail On Sunday at Associated Newspapers Ireland have gone unanswered.
Today the Irish Mail on Sunday has hit the newsagents for the first time. There has been much talk about the move by the Mail group to unite Ireland on Sunday (Ios) and the import the Mail on Sunday, into one as the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Ted Verity, editor in chief at Associated Newspapers Ireland,
told the Irish Times that it’s a matter of “getting synergies between both Mail
brands in
Some commentators have taken different views. With the IT
reporting that “many advertising observers believe the name change is occurring
solely because recent sales have been so disappointing” (Verity counters this
with the fact they haven’t been promoting the title in the run up to the
change), and others including the Sunday Turbine’s Tribune’s Richard Delevan have
questioned the re-brand/synergy/whatever after the “40m or so invested in
building the IoS brand”, and a while ago Adam Maguire commented "The funny thing is that the (Ireland) on Sunday is the more successful
of the two publications, so wouldn’t logic dictate that the daily
edition should be renamed in like with the IoS rather than vice versa?". More discussion at boards.ie's News/Media.
Blurred Keys is an Irish blog about print, broadcast, and online media, in ‘the State’ and afar, it’s edited by Cian Ginty
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