New newspaper challenges Champion for Clare readers
The Clare People, a full colour tabloid, planned an initial print run of 10,000 copies, but due to better than anticipated advance orders from newsagents, 20,000 copies reeled off the presses of the Limerick Leader late last night.
Strong advertising also led to pagination upsizing. Managing editor Gerry Collison said: “We had planned 80 pages with a 30%/40% advertising to 70%/60% news, sports and features ratio. But due to the huge amount of advertising we have had to increase to 96 pages which in turn has put big pressure on us over the past week.” Mr Collison, 49, knows the Clare newspaper scene better than most, having worked with the Clare Champion for 26 years. He was editor from 1996 until last January. He left the Champion after “serious differences’ with the owner, John Galvin, over ‘editorial independence”.
During his tenure in the editor’s chair at the Champion, Mr Collison carried out a major revamp of layout and content which led to the paper harvesting 35 national awards for it’s journalism, photography and layout.
A previous challenger to the Clare Champion, the Clare News failed after it was launched 25 years ago. However, Mr Collison said things have changed dramatically in Clare since those days. “The population of the county then was 80,000 and it now stands at 110,000. Also there is far more affluence and this is reflected in the response from advertisers and newsagents.”
The fact they will be coming out on Tuesday mornings and earlier than the Clare Champion, he said, will give them an advantage, particularly with weekend sports coverage.
The staff of 23 includes six reporters and eight sub-editors. The backers of the paper, Ennis businessmen Sean Lyne and Domhnal Slattery have ploughed over €2 million into the venture. All pages are made up on computer screens in the Ennis offices and sent by broadband to a new press just installed by the Limerick Leader.
