Mail on Sunday contacted shops over ‘Tribune’ edition

THE Irish Mail on Sunday asked shopkeepers to display a Sunday Tribune lookalike edition on empty spaces previously reserved for the defunct newspaper, a court has heard.

Yesterday, Sebastian Hamilton, editor of the Irish Mail on Sunday, defended the decision to publish the edition — saying it was a marketing exercise to gain new readers and not an attempt to mislead people.

Associated Newspapers Ireland, owners of the Irish Mail on Sunday, is being prosecuted by the National Consumer Agency at Dublin District Court for breaching the Consumer Protection Act.

The watchdog brought the case after receiving complaints from readers who bought the special edition on February 6 last thinking it was the Sunday Tribune, days after that paper went into receivership.

About 26,000 copies of the Irish Mail on Sunday, priced at €1, with a wraparound cover similar to the Sunday Tribune were distributed to shops on the east coast on February 6.

Continuing his evidence yesterday, Mr Hamilton said the edition was designed to look “a bit like” the Sunday Tribune to attract their readers after that paper had closed. Otherwise, he maintained, they could be lost to the newspaper market.

Typefaces were in fonts used only by the Irish Mail on Sunday; the front page listed some of their sections and contributors such as John Waters, Rachel Allen and Joe Brolly.

The words Sunday Tribune were printed in a different size and the Irish Mail on Sunday logo appeared on the edition’s back page.

It also bore the phrase “Your Quality Compact”, which he said attracted criticism from former Sunday Tribune editor Noirin Hegarty as it had been used by that paper when it became “compact”.

“It is a widespread journalistic phrase ever since broadsheets began to go tabloid,” he said, citing the London Times, the British Independent and The Times of India as examples.

He described the number of people who complained that they had been misled as “microscopic” compared to the 9,000 copies of the special edition sold.

He agreed the packing docket stated it was important to display the special edition on shop space which had hitherto been reserved for the Sunday Tribune.

Judge Conal Gibbons will hear closing submissions today.