The Irish Times DAC

The Irish Times DAC is one of the largest media groups operating in Ireland, and the only privately funded national news organisation that is wholly Irish owned. They produce national and regional news content across print, online and radio with offices in Dublin, Cork and Waterford.

Declared turnover for The Irish Times DAC in 2021 was €107.5M ($114.5M), the majority of this income coming from news publications and associated advertising and subscription revenue.

The Irish Times DAC operates two national daily broadsheet newspapers, The Irish Times and Irish Examiner, as well as their associated websites.

The company owns and operates a number of regional newspapers and the websites for these titles including The Echo, Laois Nationalist, Kildare nationalist, Carlow Nationalist, Western People, Waterford News and Star and Roscommon Herald.

The company operates two regional radio stations, owning a 75% share in Beat 102-103 and WLR. In 2023, they sold their 17.6% share in regional radio station Cork’s Red FM to Bauer Media Audio. They also have a 32.25% shareholding in Classic Hits FM. This is constituted by a 10% shareholding dating from the establishment of the station in 2007 and a further 22.25% acquired as a result of their 2018 acquisition of Thomas Crosbie Holdings Limited.

The Irish Times DAC is not owned by an individual but is governed by a Board of Directors led by Shay Garvey who is co-founder of Frontline Ventures; adviser to the EBRD venture capital programme; Chair of Genio, the Service Reform Fund.

Outside media publishing The Irish Times DAC also owns and operates The Irish Times Training and a newspaper printing facility in Citywest Dublin. In addition to printing all Irish Times Group titles the printing facility also produces titles for competitors Mediahuis and The Guardian (UK) for the Irish market. The Irish Times printing facility now prints The Irish Times Group titles, Mediahuis titles and The Guardian.

The Irish Times DAC has a significant history in the Irish media industry. The Irish Times newspaper was originally founded by Major Lawrence Knox in 1859. Following Knox’s death the paper was purchased Sir John Arnott in 1873, a Scottish entrepreneur who moved to Ireland and established the Arnott & Co. retail group, shipping and shipbuilding companies in Cork and Bristol.

In 1900, following the death of Sir John Arnott (1898), his widow and son established Irish Times Limited and create a public company which would remain in the control of the Arnott family as majority shareholders until 1954 when they sold most of their shares to a group of Dublin businessmen on the condition that the Irish Times retained the ‘policy which has distinguished The Irish Times as a newspaper, tolerant, critical and liberal’ (O’Brien, p147).

In the early 1970s three of the five directors of the company wanted to sell their shares and there was a fear that if these shares were quoted on the stock market there was a real potential for a take-over. In 1974 Major McDowell, the Managing Director, led the change of company structure to a Trust with the establishment of The Irish Times Trust, modelled on the structure of The Guardian in the United Kingdom. The objective of this structural change was to ensure The Irish Times remained an independent newspaper, to safeguard editorial independence and through the Memorandum and Articles of Association provide protection against a takeover of the newspaper.

The Companies Act 2014 introduced the new Designated Activity Company classification, this was adopted by Irish Times Limited in 2015.

Significant acquisitions for The Irish Times DAC:

In 2006, The Irish Times Ltd (pre-2015 change to DAC status) bought property listing website MyHome.ie for 50 million, an attempt to counteract the fall in property advertising revenue.

In 2018 The Irish Times DAC acquired Landmark Media. This merger included all news titles in the Landmark Group as well as interests in radio and recruitireland.com ending the association between the Crosbie family and the Irish Examiner. In the merger details it was stated that editorial independence for each of the news titles would be maintained with separate editorial teams for The Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Echo, breakingnews.ie and regionals newspapers remaining in place.

Today, The Irish Times DAC is governed by a Board of 10 directors who come from a variety of backgrounds with the aim to be representative of all sectors of Irish society. The Board’s main function is to ensure the financial viability of The Irish Times and day to day operations of the business, The Irish Times Trust appoints members to the board. The board includes a non-executive chair, three executives from the news publisher (Editor, Deputy Editor and Group Managing Director) and six non-executive directors, three of whom are members of The Irish Times Trust. All directors have a single vote in any decisions made. In the event where there is a disagreement, the three directors nominated to the board by the Trust have an effective veto where they have 50% of all votes plus 1. However, this can only be used in exceptional circumstances where a Board of Directors proposal contravenes the objectives, principles and standards set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust. In this event lawyers for the Trust and the Board must agree that the proposal constitutes a ‘significant policy’ under the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust.