New moves at the Irish Examiner

THE first edition of the then Cork Examiner was published 170 years ago this August.

Since then, the newspaper has survived the Famine, the Civil War, the War of Independence, two World Wars and several recessions. And while we might be living through the worst recession in memory, we are committed to constantly improving your newspaper in whatever way we can. Even when times are hard.

We are determined to continue investing time, energy and passion to make it an interesting and relevant read and a more attractive proposition for our advertisers, in print and online.

That is why we have just signed up some of the best writers in the country and made a number of key staff appointments.

Today, I am delighted to be able to say that one of Ireland’s top social and political commentators, Mick Clifford, joins our superb team of columnists and analysts.

Renowned for his brilliantly insightful work for the Sunday Tribune, Mick has written extensively about politics, the criminal justice system and the Mahon Tribunal, and he will continue to cover a wide range of the issues of the day for us in his own compelling style, along with our team of excellent staff writers, including Paul O’Brien, who has been appointed Political Editor.

Paul has been covering politics for us since 2005 and recently led the newspaper’s highly regarded coverage of the general election campaign. Prior to joining us, Paul was deputy editor of Magill current affairs magazine.

In our unrivalled sports coverage, the best GAA team in the country just got better, with acclaimed writers Enda McEvoy and Kieran Shannon joining our existing line-up of authoritative commentators and incisive interviewers.

And to underpin the backbone of our sports department production team, Terry Reilly has been appointed assistant sports editor. Terry previously worked as sports editor with the Carlow Nationalist.

While our writers are the public face of the newspaper, it could not be produced without highly skilled and talented production journalists like Mark Evans and David O’Mahony, who have been appointed Night Editor and Chief-Sub Editor respectively. Mark was previously deputy night editor and has been responsible for many of the stand-out front pages which have become synonymous with the Irish Examiner. David previously worked with us as a sub-editor, before joining the start-up United Arab Emirates English language quality daily, The National. It’s good to have him back, helping us produce the best possible newspapers for you.

And we are listening to what you want from your newspaper: we have set up reader panels to hear what you like and don’t like about our products and we will take those views on board and act on them.

These are just some of the steps we are taking to ensure you continue enjoying the Irish Examiner. And of course we won’t stop there.

Tim Vaughan

Editor