Tribune slashes losses to €3.3m

THE Sunday Tribune has managed to trim its losses to just over €60,000 a week.

Newly filed accounts for the papers show pre-tax losses last year were €3.3 million, down from €8.4m in the 18 months to end-2004, or €90,000 a week.

Accumulated losses at the end of last year grew to €43m, while the paper had a deficit of assets over liabilities.

Chairman Gordon Colleary said the company has turned around its fortunes after a restructuring process was put in place in 2004 to tackle a cost base that had reached unsustainable levels. He said the cost base in 2005 has fallen by just over €3m.

“This was a major achievement by the management team in a year of major change,” Mr Colleary said.

“Under the leadership of editor Noirin Hegarty we introduced a number of improvements and enhancements to the newspaper and there is no doubt that the Sunday Tribune has re-established itself as a quality newspaper of choice for more readers.”

The latest JNRS readership survey showed that the Sunday Tribune gained 1,000 extra readers in 2005.

Turnover in 2005 was €11.1m, compared to €17.4m in the 18 months to end-2004 and €10.3m in 2003.

Independent News & Media, which has a 29% stake in Sunday Tribune (and owns 99% of the paper when preference shares are included) lent it €4m in 2005, following on from a loan of €5.8m in 2004.

Following the departure of managing director and editor Jim Farrelly in early 2005, Independent sent in one its most senior executives, Michael Roche, to become managing director. Ms Hegarty joined from the Independent-owned Evening Herald.

Redundancy costs for the year came to €317,000, down from €367,000 in 2004.