Irish Daily Mail

Irish Daily Mail
A front page from 2011 showing the updated masthead
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)DMG Media
FoundedFebruary 2006
Political alignmentRight-wing eurosceptic
Circulation17,148[1]

The Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published on the island of Ireland by DMG Media (the parent company of the British Daily Mail). The paper launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently.[2] The 2009 price was one euro. The strategy aimed to attract readers away from the Irish Independent.[3]

Associated Newspapers Ireland employs over 160 people in Ireland. Both the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday, along with their magazines, YOU and TV Week, are printed by Smurfit Kappa News Press in Kells and The Irish Times at Citywest, Dublin.

In July 2006 British media analyst Roy Greenslade explained falling sales of the Irish Daily Mail: whereas the British version of the Daily Mail acutely understands its readership, "None of that understanding of the culture, politics and genuine interests of the Irish people is evident in the pages of the Irish Daily Mail".[4] By 2009 this policy had changed - the paper offered Irish-language wallcharts for schoolchildren, and most of its coverage was about Irish subjects, though it is frequently scathing about politicians[which?].[5]

Irish columnists are contributing to the paper, with Rónán Mullen's column, for example, in the Irish Daily Mail since May 2006. Mary Ellen Synon, a former Sunday Independent columnist who had controversial views on travellers, asylum seekers and the Paralympics is a regular contributor to the paper. Mark Dooley has also served as a columnist since 2006. His popular column "Moral Matters" appears on Wednesdays.

On 24 September 2006, Ireland on Sunday, which had been purchased by Associated Newspapers in 2001, was rebranded as the Irish Mail on Sunday, replacing the British edition of the Mail on Sunday in the Irish market.

In February 2007 Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny cited the Irish Daily Mail in the Dáil regarding a front page which depicted a CT scanner that lay idle in a laundry room.

In October 2012 an Irish Daily Mail team won an NNI journalism award honour in the category "Best Design & Presentation". The jury commented: "There was attitude, colour cohesion and brilliant headline writing throughout."[6]

In March 2019 DMG Media Ireland – the group representing the Irish Daily Mail, the Irish Mail on Sunday, Extra.ie and Evoke.ie – proposed 35 redundancies, which would have brought staff numbers down to 121.[7] In April 2019 compulsory redundancies were announced.[8] 35 redundancies occurred by the end of April 2019.[9]

In 2019, DMG Media Ireland acquired Rollercoaster, an Irish website targeted at parents.[10]

  1. ^ "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulations May 2023". 13 June 2023.
  2. ^ "Irish Daily Mail launched today". 6 February 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2019 – via www.RTE.ie. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Dan Milmo Daily Mail's new edition targets O'Reilly's Irish Independent, The Guardian, 7 February 2006, accessed 5 September 2006
  4. ^ Roy Greenslade Why the Daily Mail is doing badly in Ireland, The Guardian, 22 July 2006, accessed 5 September 2006
  5. ^ Irish Daily Mail, 2 February 2009, front page.
  6. ^ "2012 NNI Journalism Awards". National Newspapers of Ireland. Archived from the original on 16 May 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  7. ^ Miley, Ingrid (1 March 2019). "Irish Daily Mail seeks redundancies to save costs". Retrieved 6 April 2019 – via www.RTE.ie. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Slattery, Laura. "Dozen employees at 'Irish Daily Mail' told jobs at risk". The Irish Times. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  9. ^ Slattery, Laura. "'Irish Daily Mail' publisher reaches redundancy target". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 April 2019. DMG Media Ireland, the publisher of the Irish Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, has reached its target of 35 redundancies.
  10. ^ "Publisher of the Irish edition of the Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday made a profit of €1.17m".