Irish Examiner CEO appointed interim TCH CEO

The chief executive of the Irish Examiner, Tom Murphy, has been appointed interim CEO of the newspaper's parent company, Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd (TCH), replacing Anthony Dinan.

Mr Dinan announced his retirement as group managing director yesterday. He will retire from TCH on June 30 after 30 years with the group.

Mr Murphy has been chief executive of the Irish Examiner since 2002 and, prior to that, held a number of key positions within the media organisation. As group commercial manager of TCH he was involved in important acquisitions for the group, including the Western People, the Carlow Nationalist and The Sunday Business Post. The TCH group also owns several other regional newspapers, online businesses, and has shareholdings in a number of radio stations.

TCH is the parent company of Thomas Crosbie Media, which owns and operates breakingnews.ie, Motornet.ie and recruitireland.com.

Commenting on his appointment as interim group chief executive, which takes effect on May 24, Mr Murphy said he was looking forward to the challenges of the position.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I relish a challenge and I am fortunate that I will be taking it on with the support of a highly motivated and talented group of people, already in-situ, working with great brands. That's a good place to be starting from," he said.

"While the media business is as challenged as any other industry operating in the Irish economy right now, we are in a strong position having the wonderful brands that we do, and the great relationships we have with our newspaper and online readers and radio listeners, which in turn deliver real results for our advertisers.

"That would not be possible without a team of people right throughout the group that is focussed on delivering top-class performance and top-class service for their customers,” he said.

Mr Murphy added that he hoped to be in a position to announce the appointment of an interim chief executive of the Irish Examiner shortly.

TCH Chairman Alan Crosbie said: “I believe Tom's appointment is a very positive development for the group and I'm glad that he has agreed to take up the position.

“The economic environment presents us all with tough challenges and I am confident that Tom will meet those challenges head-on.

“He has done a great job as chief executive of the Irish Examiner and I have every confidence that he will do the same in his new role. I am looking forward to working closely with Tom.”

Prior to his appointment as CEO of the Irish Examiner in October 2002 Mr Murphy held the position of group commercial manager of TCH. Before that, he worked in senior financial and project management positions in the drinks and food industry with a number of major companies, including two of the C&C group of companies.