Longfordlive

Longfordlive is a news website populated by content from the Longford Leader, a weekly local newspaper published in Longford, a town in County Longford in the Midlands region of Ireland. It was founded as a nationalist paper in 1897 by activists J.P. Farrell and Jasper Tully.

Longfordlive was launched in 2022, with the Leader calling it a 'new chapter in our 125 year history’. The website runs stories appearing in the Longford Leader, as well as other Iconic-owned news outlets. Information about page visits for the site itself is not publicly available, though the ‘advertising’ section of the website claims an ‘audience’ of 21,000 across print and digital.

The decision to move the Longford Leader under the Longfordlive website was made by the paper's owner, Iconic Newspapers. Iconic purchased a number of Irish newspapers in the 2010s and immediately set about modernising and digitising those operations. All Iconic news websites now include 'live' at the end of their URLs. News content appearing on Longfordlive is free to access. However, access to the Leader e-paper requires a subscription.

Iconic's push for centralised news sites aligns with broader 'digital first' trends in the Irish news industry. Newspaper owners are increasingly reducing staff numbers through voluntary redundancies and layoffs in Ireland. Some owners (such as Mediahuis) are planning to phase out print publications altogether due to declining print circulation and increasing costs. The collection of local news sites under a single banner also represents another layer of de-localisation in the Irish news industry. Irish newspaper ownership has become increasingly concentrated in the 21st century, and Iconic (Media Concierge) is now Ireland's largest holder of local and regional papers, with 18 titles. The impact of the combined concentration in ownership and web presence is that traditionally hyper-local titles now share regional and national content.

It is important to note that there is a degree of opacity concerning how content on Longfordlive is curated. For example, there does not appear to be a dedicated editorial staff for the website itself, and information on website content decisions is not provided. This lack of editorial transparency becomes more problematic when considering that the broader network of Iconic newspapers supplies a significant volume of Limericklive’s content; it also raises the question of whether Ireland's growing online news ecosystem will adhere to the same level of editorial transparency as traditional print publications. At the same time, since the Longfordlive is only served by one paper, editorial decisions are more easily traced than in the case of Iconic's 'Live' news sites that are served by multiple newspapers (e.g., Donegallive).

The Longford Leader has undergone several ownership changes in previous decades.
In February 2002, Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) paid €9.1m to acquire the Leader, which was in turn acquired by Johnston Press in 2005 as part of their acquisition of SRH’s Irish titles. The paper was purchased from Johnstown Press by Iconic Media in a 2014 acquisition. Iconic Media is owned by Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited, which is in turn owned by The Denmark Family, with UK businessman Malcolm Denmark as the controlling shareholder.

(Last updated in May 2026)

Key Facts

Audience Share	Missing Data
Ownership Type	Private
Geographic Coverage	Local
Content Type	Free
Data Publicly Available	ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Operating Company	Form Press Publishing Identifier: Limited Liability Company, Companies Registration Office (CRO) Company Number: IE538870

Ownership

Ownership Structure	Longfordlive is operated by Formpress Publishing Limited, which is owned by Iconic Newspapers Limited. The parent organisation of Iconic Newspapers Limited is Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited (previously Mediaforce (Holdings) Limited). The Denmark Family is the sole owner of the media group. Callum Denmark, who owns 75.1% of shares, is identified as the controlling shareholder in accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Media Concierge Holdings Group Limited. The remaining company shares are owned by T.C. Denmark (24.1%), and V.M. Denmark (0.9%) and previous controlling shareholder Malcolm Denmark with a single share.
Voting Rights	Callum Denmark is identified as the controlling shareholder in accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Media Concierge Holdings Group Limited.
Individual Owner	Denmark Family 100

Operating Company

Media Concierge (Holdings) Ltd.
100%

Facts

Founding Year	2022 Iconic Newspapers (owned by Media Concierge Holdings Ltd., previously known as Mediaforce) owns 18 newspaper titles throughout the Republic of Ireland. Iconic purchased 14 of these papers, including the Longford Leader, from Johnstown Press in a 2014 acquisition. Iconic has especially focused on modernising and digitising its Irish newspaper stable by providing news sites for all papers, sometimes consolidating regional papers under a single site (e.g., Donegallive.ie). All Iconic news websites include 'live' at the end of their URLs. News content appearing on these websites is free to access, though the e-paper versions of the local papers require a subscription. Unlike Mediahuis, Iconic has not publicly stated that it is phasing out print newspapers in favour of news sites.
CEO	Callum Denmark Callum Denmark became CEO of Media Concierge Holdings Group Limited in November 2025, replacing his father Malcolm. (Malcolm Denmark is an advertising executive who established Mediaforce UK in 1985, an advertising agency which represented media owners to advertising agencies.) At the time, Mediaforce focused mainly on regional outlets across the UK. However, the business now includes the production and distribution of inserts in local and national titles. It has also expanded into print and online outlet ownership through an aggressive acquisition policy focusing on regional and local media publishers in the UK and Ireland. As such Callum inherited Media Concierge (Holdings) Ltd., which has ventured into business activities that encompass a full range of advertising services such as representation, marketing, publishing, and distribution for Iconic Media in Ireland (Mediaforce Ireland/Formpress), which is the news publishing section of his business. In addition to media businesses, Malcolm Denmark owned 75.2% of Media Concierge until November 2025, alongside his son Callum Nicolas Denmark’s 15%, his daughter Tara Clare Denmark’s 9% and Valerie Mary Denmark (born 1957) 0.76%. In November 2025, Malcolm stood down as beneficial owner and was replaced by Callum Denmark. Of the 30.4m shares in the company, 75.1% are held by Callum, 24.9% by Tara, 0.9% by Valerie with Malcolm retaining a single share.
Editor-In-Chief	Alan Walsh Alan Walsh has served as the Managing Editor of the Longford Leader since 2016, but first joined the paper in 2013 as the News Editor. He has more than 20 years of experience in the news industry, having previously served as News Editor for the Offaly Express, another local news outlet in the Midlands region. Walsh is fond of sports reporting and has received two prestigious awards for his work in this area, including a GAA McNamee Award in 1998 for Best Article in a Provincial Newspaper and an RTÉ/Camogie Association Media Award in 2010.
Contact	Market Square N39KN82 Longford Co. Longford Ireland news@longfordleader.ie +353 (0) 43 33 45 241 www.longfordleader.ie

Revenue	Missing Data
Operating Profit	Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)	Missing Data
Market Share	Missing Data

Headlines	Change is here ... Introducing LongfordLive (2022), Longford Leader, Accessed 10 March 2026 Longford Leader, Irish Newspaper Archives, Accessed 9 July 2025 Longford remembers JP Farrell, Ireland’s Eye Magazine, Accessed 9 July 2025 Thomas Lyons (2022) “End of era at the Longford Leader as Margie retires after 44 years”, irelandlive.ie, Accessed 9 July 2025 “Provincial newspaper publisher relished tackling the challenges of a man's world” (2000), Irish Times, Accessed 9 July 2025 Jim Aughney (2002) “SRH pays 9m for Longford Leader Group”, Irish Independent, Accessed 9 July 2025 Alan Walsh appointed Longford Leader managing editor, longfordlive.ie, Accessed 9 July 2025 Iconic Media boss vows to ‘keep it in the family’ (2025), Hold the Front Page, Accessed 11 May 2026
Meta Data	Historical Information about The Longford Leader was obtained from the paper’s website (longfordlive.ie), as well as from the Irish Newspaper Archives, The Dictionary of Irish Biography, and Ireland’s Eye Magazine. Information about editor Alan Walsh was obtained via longfordlive.ie Ownership and financial information was gathered from the FAME Database (Moody’s) regarding Formpress Publishing Limited, Iconic Newspapers Limited, and Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited. Accurate estimation of outlet market share was not possible because reporting on income levels in Ireland is typically done at the group level rather than the individual title level. Additionally, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are not available. Accurate estimation of audience share of news sites is not possible. Although Kantar collects publicly available figures on readership for national print titles, parallel figures are not available for regional and local newspapers and their websites. Furthermore, the ‘advertise with use’ sections of Iconic’s ‘Live’ websites do not provide information on page visits and only present consolidated readership numbers across print, website and social media.
Sources	Companies register office, Accessed on 16 June 2025 FAME Database Formpress Publishing Profile, Accessed on 30 June 2025 Tully, Jasper Joseph, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Accessed on 9 July 2025
Documents (PDF)	Financial Statement Formpress Publishing Limited (2023) Link File Compiled Financial Data Formpress Publishing Limited Link File