Offalylive

Offalylive is a news website populated by content from the Midland Tribune, the Tullamore Tribune, and the Offaly Express (only nominally). The Midland Tribune is a weekly local newspaper published in Birr, County Offaly, in Ireland. It was founded as The ‘Midland Tribune and King’s County Vindicator’ in 1881 by three Birr priests: Rev. Robert Little, Rev. Denis Sheehan and Reverend Patrick Brennan. The Tullamore Tribune is a weekly local newspaper published in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. It was founded in 1978 by the Midland Tribune, thereby establishing a strong news presence in the Midlands region. Geoff Oakley of the Midland Tribune became its first editor and remained in this post until Ger Scully, the current editor, took over in 1994. The former print paper, the Offaly Express, was founded in 1984 as a sister paper to the Leinster Express in County Kildare. The Express ceased print operations in 2012, though it continued as an online news source. Though the Offalylive site lists the Express as one of its contributing publications, this is mostly a symbolic gesture, as no staff members are listed for the Express itself.

Offalylive was launched in 2022, with staff calling it a ‘rebrand’ for the Offaly Express and a 'A NEW era in the story of news in Offaly’. The website runs stories from the three aforementioned publications, as well as from 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 26,000 across print and digital.

The decision to move the Midland Tribune, the Tullamore Tribune, and the Offaly Express under the Offalylive 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 Offalylive is curated. Though a ‘digital editor’, Damian Moran, is listed on the website, there is no information about how editorial and content decisions are made. This lack of editorial transparency becomes more problematic when considering that the website is curated by content from two print publications and that the broader network of Iconic newspapers supplies a significant volume of its content. This oversight 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.

The Offaly Express, Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune have undergone several ownership changes in previous decades. The outlets remained in the hands of the Fanning family until their sale to Alpha Publications in 2003. They were purchased from Alpha by Iconic Newspapers in 2019. The Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune (as well as Offalylive) are operated by Formpress Publishing Ltd. (Iconic Newspapers), whose parent company is Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited. The paper is now operated by Formpress Publishing Ltd., which is owned by Iconic Media, whose parent company is Media Concierge Holdings Group Limited. Media Concierge is wholly owned by The Denmark Family, with UK businessman Callum Denmark as the controlling shareholder.

(Last updated in May 2026)