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Donegallive is a news website populated by content from the Donegal Democrat, the Donegal Post, the Inish Times and LetterkennyLive (a free weekly paper). All of these newspapers serve Donegal, the northernmost county in the Republic of Ireland. The Donegal Democrat is a twice-weekly regional paper published in Donegal town and founded in 1919; The Donegal Post is a weekly local paper published in Donegal town founded in June 2006; LetterkennyLive is a weekly (free) local paper published in LetterKenny and founded in 2023; and The Inish Times is a local weekly paper published in the town of Buncrana on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal and was founded in 1999.

Donegallive was launched in 2019 and primarily runs stories appearing in the print editions of the aforementioned newspapers. The website proved to be a popular channel for news dissemination, receiving 1.5 million page views within one month of launching. Entering the former URLs for any of the individual papers (e.g., donegaldemocrat.ie) reroutes to donegalive.ie.

The decision to bring these local newspapers under one website was made by the papers’ owner, Iconic Newspapers. Starting in the 2010s, Iconic Newspapers purchased a number of Irish papers and set about modernising and digitising those operations (all Iconic news websites include ‘live’ at the end of their URLs). For example, Iconic purchased the Donegal Democrat from Johnstown Press in 2014, and The Inish Times and Donegal Post from River Media in 2018. 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 such as the Inish Times now share regional and national content.

Further, there is a degree of opacity concerning the curation of content on centralised news sites in comparison to the local titles. For example, Information regarding management of Donegalive and its content is not provided on the website. Indeed, there does not appear to be a dedicated editorial staff for the website itself, and contact information is provided only for the separate newspapers. This lack of editorial transparency is problematic and begs the question of whether Ireland’s online news sites will adhere to the same level of editorial transparency as in print publications.

Donegallive and its associated newspapers is operated by Formpress Publishing, which is owned by Iconic Newspapers. Iconic is owned by Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited, which is wholly owned by The Denmark Family, with UK businessman Malcolm Denmark as the controlling shareholder.

Key Facts

Audience ShareMissing Data
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageLocal
Content TypeMixed
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Operating CompanyForm Press Publishing
Identifier: Limited Liability Company, Companies Registration Office (CRO) Company Number: IE538870

Ownership

Ownership Structure

DonegalLive 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. Malcolm Denmark, who owns 75% of shares, is identified as the controlling shareholder in accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited. The remaining company shares are owned by C.N. Denmark (15%), T.C. Denmark (9%), and V.M. Denmark (0.76%).

Voting RightsMalcolm (M.C.) Denmark is identified as the controlling shareholder in accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited.
Individual Owner

Operating Company

Facts

Founding Year2019
Founder
  • Missing Data

    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 Donegal Democrat, 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
  • Malcolm Denmark

    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.

    Since the establishment of Mediaforce, Malcolm Denmark’s business interests have expanded in this sector. He has established Media Concierge (Holdings) Ltd., which includes several subsidiaries, including Mediaforce. Denmark has also 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 also holds significant property interests and is the owner of multiple race horses.

    Malcolm Denmark owns 75.2% of Media Concierge, alongside his son Callum Nicolas Denmark’s 15%, his daughter Tara Clare Denmark’s 9% and Valerie Mary Denmark (born 1957) 0.76%.

Editor-In-Chief
  • Alan Foley

    Alan Foley has served as the Managing Editor for Iconic outlets in County Donegal since 2023. He is responsible for content appearing in the Donegal Democrat, the Inish Times, the Inishowen Independent, the Donegal Post and LetterkennyLive. He previously worked as a sports editor for the Donegal Democrat.

ContactMissing Data
news@donegallive.ie
www.donegallive.ie
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta Data

Historical information about Donegallive was obtained from an article appearing on its website.

Ownership and financial information was gathered from the FAME Database (Moody’s) regarding Formpress Publishing Limited, Iconic Newspapers Limited, and Media Concierge (Holdings) Limited.

Information regarding editor Alan Foley was sourced from donegallive.ie.

No contact information or physical address for the website operations is provided on the Donegallive website. The only website-specific contact information available is the news@donegallive.ie email address. This lack of contact information is complicated by the fact that Donegallive curates content from several Donegal newspapers.

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
Documents (PDF)
  • Brainstorm of Fire for New Publication
    Link File
  • John Downey: The Main Who Started it All
    Link File
  • Determination of Merger Notification River Newspapers
    Link File
  • Compiled Financial Data Formpress Publishing Limited
    Link File
  • Merger Announcement Inish Times
    Link File
  • Financial Statement Formpress Publishing Limited (2023)
    Link File