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Irish Daily Star

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Irish Tabloid
Owner(s)	Reach plc
Publisher	Reach plc
Editor	Neil Leslie
Founded	29 February 1988 (1988-02-29)
Headquarters	Independent House, Talbot Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Circulation	21,940 (as of May 2023)
Website	thestar.ie and buzz.ie

The Irish Daily Star (formerly known simply as The Star) is a tabloid newspaper published in Ireland by Reach plc, which owns the British Daily Star.

The Irish Daily Star became known for its comprehensive in-depth coverage of and thorough focus on crime, often featuring sensational coverage. It also focuses heavily on celebrity matters, and has a large sports section. Between 2003 and 2011, a Sunday edition was published, as Irish Daily Star Sunday. Like its British tabloid counterpart, the Irish Daily Star has a red-top mast head.

History

First published on 29 February 1988, nominally the paper was the Irish version of the UK tabloid Daily Star. It did, however, contain more Irish content than any similar Irish editions of the UK national newspapers. The tabloid had strong nationalist leanings, claiming on its slogan to be "Better... because we're Irish".

The newspaper's offices were located in Terenure, Dublin 6W, until November 2010. They then relocated to Building 4 of the Dundrum Town Centre complex. The Star employs 70 staff directly. The controlling editor of the paper for many years was Gerard Colleran, who often appears on television programmes such as Tonight with Vincent Browne. Michael O'Kane took over from Colleran as editor of the Irish Daily Star on 25 November 2011. Colleran then became managing director of the tabloid.

In September 2018, Reach plc, publisher of the Mirror, acquired the 50% stake formally owned by Northern & Shell.

In April 2020, the editor Eoin Brannigan left the Irish Daily Star.

In July 2020, it was announced that Independent News & Media had reached an agreement to sell their 50% stake in Independent Star to Reach plc. The agreement is subject to competition authority approval and is expected to close in late 2020.

In November 2020, the acquisition of the 50% stake owned by Independent News & Media was approved by the regulator and the minister.

Content

While the Daily Star (UK) focuses almost exclusively on celebrity content, the Irish Daily Star includes mostly coverage of Irish issues and sport.

In Northern Ireland, The Irish Star features a green masthead, in order to distinguish it from the UK version which is also sold there. It also differs from the Irish Daily Star in that it features more news about Northern Ireland.

In USA, the Irish Star features a green masthead, and features news about Ireland. IrishStar.com began in February 2023 using the tagline, The Voice of Irish America.

Circulation

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Ireland, the average daily circulation of the Irish Daily Star:

Business

The 2011 accounts showed that The Irish Daily Star made a profit of €1.44 million for 2011, this was down 63% year-on-year. Revenue was down 20% year-on-year. The company shed 20 staff in 2011, bringing its employment to 118.

Staffing numbers were down to 110 in January 2013, with 80 of those posts full-time and 9 job cuts pending.

Staff numbers reduced to 50 by 31 December 2017.

Kate Middleton photographs and subsequent reorganisation (2012/2013)

The Irish Daily Star published controversial topless pictures of Kate Middleton on 15 September 2012. St James's Palace said there could be "no motivation for this action other than greed". Editor Michael O'Kane defended the publication, saying to the BBC: "I did this as a service to our readers, I'm a little taken aback by the reaction in the UK. It only seems to be an issue in the UK because she is your future queen. But from our point of view in Ireland, Kate Middleton is just another of the fantastic line of celebrities".

In response to the publication of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton, later that day Northern & Shell, the co-owner of the Irish Daily Star, announced it was "taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture".

On 17 September 2012, editor Michael O'Kane was suspended pending an investigation into the matter. The following day, it was reported that the "Northern & Shell company was indicating that the company's focus was on exiting the publishing joint venture" rather than closure specifically. It was subsequently reported, that the contract between Northern & Shell and Independent News & Media allows either one of them to give notice of an intention to withdraw and that lawyers from Northern & Shell were trying to extricate Desmond's company from the agreement.

On 24 November 2012, Michael O'Kane resigned as editor of the Irish Daily Star. The same day, The Telegraph reported that IN&M and N&S were working together "to secure the future of the newspaper" and that there was "no change to the status of the 25-year-old joint venture" but that there will be further changes, to be announced in the future, at the paper. The following day, The Sunday Times reported that the changes will be "rationalisation" in nature and would be announced over the coming weeks.

On 10 January 2013, the reorganisation was announced. IN&M assumed full executive responsibility for the Irish Daily Star. These included pay cuts for all staff, nine staff redundancies and cost cuts of overheads. The Irish Daily Star will relocate to Talbot Street in Dublin from its current offices in Dundrum. Gerry Lennon has been appointed managing director of the Irish Daily Star in addition to his existing role of managing director of the Sunday World.

The Irish Daily Star is also going to start sharing some functions with the Sunday World.

Editors

• Eoin Brannigan (2017–2020)
• Des Gibson (2014 – 2017)
• Gerard Colleran (until 2011 and 2014)
• Michael O'Kane (2011–2012)
• Neil Leslie (2020 – present day)

Contributors

Authors such as Donn McCleann, Gary O'Brien and Derek Foley feature on the paper's websites.

Notes

1. Michael O'Kane suspended as editor on 17 September 2012 following his decision to publish topless photographs of Kate Middleton

References

1. ^ "Neil Leslie appointed editor of Irish Daily Star". The Irish Times.
2. "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulations May 2023". 13 June 2023.
3. "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulations February 2023". 15 March 2023.
4. "Irish Daily Star Launches Buzz.ie". 25 November 2016.
5. ^ Healy, Alan (20 November 2020). "'Irish Mirror' publisher secures clearance to acquire 'Irish Daily Star' newspaper". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
6. Fears at Irish Daily Star over Richard Desmond closure threat guardian.co.uk, 16 September 2012
7. Slattery, Laura (12 September 2018). "Competition watchdog clears Reach deal to buy 50% of 'Irish Daily Star'". The Irish Times.
8. ^ Slattery, Laura (24 April 2020). "Eoin Brannigan appointed new editor-in-chief of Belfast Telegraph". The Irish Times.
9. Mayhew, Freddy (24 April 2020). "Irish Daily Star's Eoin Brannigan named editor-in-chief of Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life". Press Gazette.
10. Taylor, Charlie (23 July 2020). "INM sells its 50% stake in Irish Daily Star to Mirror publisher". The Irish Times.
11. ^ "About Us". Irish Star .com. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
12. "Vincent Browne, Village, Irish Politics, Current Affairs, Corruption, Magill, Government, Magazine, Investigation, Financial Times FT Magazine, John Lloyd, Investigations : Comment Finfacts Ireland".
13. "Finfacts.ie". Archived from the original on 22 September 2016.
14. "Circulation". Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
15. McMenamin, Iain; Flynn, Roderick; O'Malley, Eoin; Rafter, Kevin (2012). "Explaining election frames: A content analysis of twelve newspapers in the 2011 Irish general election" (PDF). p. 7.
16. "Irish morning newspaper ABC circulations, Jan-June 2012". ilevel.ie. iLevel. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
17. "November 2012 ABC Newspaper Circulation Print". Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
18. "December 2012 ABC Irish Newspaper Circulations Print". Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
19. "Daily Star Circulation Certificate" (PDF). ABC. April 2013. p. 2.
20. "July 2017 ABC Newspaper Circulation Print". Archived from the original on 17 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
21. "Irish Newspaper Circulation July-Dec 2017 Island of Ireland Report Print". Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
22. "Irish Newspaper Circulation July-Dec 2018 Island of Ireland Report Print". 22 February 2019.
23. "Irish Newspaper Circulation Jan-June 2019 Island of Ireland Report Print". 22 August 2019.
24. "Irish Newspaper Circulation July-Dec 2019 Island of Ireland Report". 20 February 2020.
25. "Daily Star Certificate" (PDF). ABC. January 2020. p. 3.
26. "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulation May 2020 (Covid19) Cert - update". 17 June 2020.
27. "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulation February 2023". 15 March 2023.
28. "ABC Irish Newspaper Circulations May 2023". 13 June 2023.
29. "Daily Star circulation" (PDF). abc.org.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
30. https://www.abc.org.uk/Certificates/50693847.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
31. https://www.abc.org.uk/Certificates/50760282.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
32. Turnover at Independent Star falls 20% Daily Business Post, 25 September 2012
33. ^ "The Business Post - Independent journalism every day | BusinessPost.ie".
34. "'Irish Daily Star' profits drop as 50% stake is set to change hands". The Irish Times.
35. "Kate topless photos carried in Irish Daily Star tabloid". BBC News. BBC. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
36. "Irish Daily Star owners 'to close down joint venture' over Middleton pictures". RTÉ News. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
37. "Irish Daily Star owner says he will 'close down joint venture'". TheJournal.ie. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
38. Irish Daily Star editor suspended over topless Kate pictures TheJournal.ie, 17 September 2012
39. Irish Daily Star closure threat recedes after publication of topless Kate photos guardian.co.uk, 18 September 2012
40. Desmond will not change his mind about ditching the Irish Daily Star guardian.co.uk, 20 September 2012
41. "Irish Daily Star editor resigns after publishing topless Kate Middleton pictures". 24 November 2012.
42. Ensor, Josie (24 November 2012). "Irish Daily Star editor resigns over Kate Middleton topless pictures". The Daily Telegraph. London.
43. "INM assumes full responsibility at Irish Daily Star". Irish Examiner. 10 January 2013.
44. "Shareholders agree shake-up of Irish Daily Star". RTÉ News. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
45. "INM to take executive control of the Irish Daily Star". Irish Independent. 22 January 2013.
46. Donn McCleann - Talking Horses Archived 30 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine StarBets.ie
47. Gary O'Brien's View from the Track Archived 28 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine StarBets.ie
48. Dere Foley - There's only one "F" in Foley Archived 19 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine StarBets.ie
49. "Michael O'Kane suspended over Star photos". RTÉ News. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 17 September 2012. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.

External links

• Official website

• 1988 establishments in Ireland
• Daily newspapers published in Ireland
• Newspapers published in Northern Ireland
• Newspapers published in the Republic of Ireland
• Newspapers established in 1988
• Newspapers published by Reach plc