Irish Daily Star newspapers report €4.3m in operating profits

Independent Star Limited, publisher of Irish Daily Star newspapers, has reported operating profits of €4.3m for the year ended 31st December 2010.

These profits show a year on year decline of 10% and a decline in total revenues of 5%.

However costs were cut by 5.5%.

During the year the company paid dividends of €4.55m to its shareholders.

Paul Cooke, Managing Director, said: "2010 was a challenging year for Irish Media.; however these results show that The Star’s financial performance compares very favourably with its peers. Furthermore this performance combined with the profits reported for Independent News & Media for the first half of 2011 show that the domestic Irish newspaper sector is very much alive.

"The Star itself performed particularly well in the advertising market with a year on year decline of only 1% compared to a national market decline of 7% according to the National Newspapers of Ireland statistics."

The company is a joint venture between Independent News & Media and Northern Shell.