Irish Independent owner to cut workforce seeking up to 60 redundancies

Company said print and advertising revenue streams remain under pressure

The company said print and advertising revenues were being replaced by digital subscribers but at a slower pace. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Mediahuis Ireland the publisher of the Irish Independent, Sunday World and The Kerryman titles is to seek up to 60 redundancies as it aims to cut its wage bill.

Addressing staff today CEO Peter Vandermeersch said they were seeking to cut the company's overall Irish workforce by 10%.

The company is seeking voluntary redundancies between now and the end of February across Dublin, Belfast and the regions. The move comes less than a year after the company announced it was seeking an unspecified number of redundancies as part of its “ongoing digital transformation programme”.

Other titles Mediahuis Ireland publishes include the Belfast Telegraph, The Herald and The Corkman. 

The company said print and advertising revenues were being replaced by digital subscribers but at a slower pace. Currently, 70 per cent of revenues come from print and 30 per cent from digital, but by 2030 they forecast a reversal of that ratio.

“Journalism is the absolute core of our business, but all over the world, media companies are struggling with the same dilemma – how to generate sufficient revenues to finance our ambition to produce excellent journalism," Vandermeersch said.

“I am convinced that our strategy is the right one: to restructure our business to make this a leaner, more streamlined news organisation with the most efficient processes and systems possible, while continuing to produce the highest quality journalism and diversifying our revenues to build a sustainable future for our company.”

In an interview last year, Vandermeersch said they would phase out daily print editions of their titles within ten years.

According to 2022 financial results for the larger Mediahuis media group, profits at the Belgium-based company dropped from €117.3m in 2021 to €65.3m. The company said high inflation and the cost of paper was a major contributor to the drop. Turnover at the company stood at €1.2bn in 2022, up from €1.13bn.