Losses of over €1m for Clare People publisher

A BUSINESS that is co-owned by airline company executive Domhnal Slattery and publishes The Clare People newspaper last year sustained losses of over €1 million.

However, managing editor of The Clare People Gerry Collison said yesterday that the paper “has turned the corner” and is in a good position to return a modest profit in 2010.

On Thursday, it emerged that Mr Slattery’s Dublin-based Jetbird venture has placed its 38 staff on protective notice as it battles to secure new funding to launch its executive jet airline service.

Along with property developer and hotelier Sean Lyne, Mr Slattery owns 84.75% of The Clare People.

The two Ennis men launched the newspaper in their home town in June 2005 and accounts just returned to the Companies’ Office by Clare College News Ltd show its accumulated losses exceed €4.5m.

Mr Collison said yesterday: “The accumulated losses of €4.5m represent the full start-up costs of the newspaper since December 2004 and this figure is significantly below what we anticipated in our original business plan. The paper made a profit for the first time in September and is on course to break even for the final quarter of the year. This was achieved through extensive cost reductions, which cut weekly operational costs by over 50%.

“This would not have been possible without the active cooperation and goodwill of staff, whose sacrifices over the past year have ensured the paper’s long-term survival.”

The paper was established to challenge the 100-year dominance by The Clare Champion in the county and the latest ABC figures show that the Champion’s circulation is 19,046 compared to the People’s 12,154.

Mr Collison said: “As a start-up operation, The Clare People had no accumulated reserves and felt the effects of the recession at an earlier stage than most of the legacy titles.”

“This in some way proved a blessing in disguise as it enabled us to tackle our cost base earlier than might have been the norm. I would expect that we will be one of the very few regional newspapers reporting break-even or a profit for the final quarter of 2009.”

The directors state that they and the shareholders have advanced interest-free loans of €3.3m to the end of 2008 and of €326,000 to the company up to September 2009.