INM chief executive Robert Pitt did not back a vote to re-elect chairman Leslie Buckley at the company’s highly charged AGM.

Independent News and Media — of which Denis O’Brien owns a significant stake — said it wants “urgently” to spark a debate over ownership and consolidation of newspapers and broadcasters in Ireland, claiming “unhelpful” regulatory conditions were placed this year on its now aborted bid to take over regional publisher Celtic Media.

Costs associated with probes into corporate governance helped to damage profits at Independent News and Media, the group has said.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has urged Independent News and Media (INM) pension fund trustees to appeal the company’s plan to close its defined benefit pension scheme to the High Court.

Pre-tax profits at rescued regional newspaper group, Celtic Media totalled just under €1.6m in its first year of operation, new figures show.

Celtic Media Group, publisher of the Anglo-Celt, Meath Chronicle, and Westmeath Examiner newspapers, has been bought in a management buyout for €5.5m.

REGIONAL newspaper publisher Celtic Media Group returned to profitability in 2009, according to latest accounts filed with the CompaniesOffice.

REGIONAL newspaper publisher Celtic Media Group increased its operating profits in 2006 by 11%.

FIVE groups are in the running to secure a licence to run a commercial radio station covering the midlands and the north-east.

JOHNSTON PRESS, the Scottish newspaper group, has splashed out more than €240 million to become the largest regional publisher in Ireland with the takeover of the Leinster Leader Group and Northern Ireland’s Local Press company.

CELTIC Media Group, the new owners of the Meath Chronicle, made a profit of just under €400,000 last year.

THE Anglo-Celt weekly newspaper has been purchased from the O’Hanlon family by the Dunfermline Press in a €15 million deal.