null | Media Ownership Monitor Ireland

The Irish Examiner is a daily broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday. It is one of two national daily titles published by the Irish Times Group. Editorial and operations for the Irish Examiner are based in Cork city.

Founded in Cork 1841 by John Francis Maguire, the paper’s initial focus was on the promotion of Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic Emancipation campaign. In 1872 Thomas Crosbie, a reporter and editor of the newspaper, acquired the title. Ownership remained with the Crosbie family for five generations through the Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) vehicle. In 2013 TCH went into receivership with media interests being sold to Landmark Media, a company backed by Ted and Tom Crosbie, descendants of Thomas Crosbie. In 2018 the Irish Times DAC acquired most of the media interests of Landmark Media, ending the association between the Crosbie family and the Irish Examiner.

Originally titled the Cork Examiner, in 1996 the name was changed to The Examiner and subsequently in 2000 to the Irish Examiner to reflect an ambition to be regarded as a national rather than regional or Munster paper. As of 2025, the Irish Examiner has 180,000 print readers each week, making it the third most read Irish-based print title.

(Last updated in April 2026)

Key Facts

Audience Share	Missing Data
Ownership Type	Private
Geographic Coverage	National
Content Type	Paid
Active Transparency	company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable

Ownership

Ownership Structure	The Irish Examiner is owned and operated by The Irish Times DAC which is ultimately owned by The Irish Times Trust CLG. The company has no shareholders but is managed by two boards, Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG and The Board of The Irish Times DAC, members of which are appointed by the Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG.
Voting Rights	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.
Individual Owner	Board of Directors of The Irish Times DAC The Irish Times Group is structured as a Trust and governance is the responsibility of The Irish Times Trust and The Irish Times Board of Directors. In the case of The Irish Times the trust structure is used to ensure that profits generated are invested back into the business to develop journalism and maintain independence. For the purposes of this project we categorise the chairs of these boards as ‘owners’ due to their prominent position and list all members of each board. 1 Irish Times Trust Is structured as a Trust and governance is the responsibility of The Irish Times Trust and The Irish Times Board of Directors. In the case of The Irish Times the trust structure is used to ensure that profits generated are invested back into the business to develop journalism and maintain independence. For the purposes of this project we categorise the chairs of these boards as ‘owners’ due to their prominent position and list all members of each board. 99

Operating Company

The Irish Times DAC

Facts

Founding Year	1841
Founder	John Francis Maguire Established the newspaper in 1841. A lawyer and politician, Maguire established the Cork Examiner to support Daniel O’Connell’s movement for Catholic Emancipation.
CEO	Karen O’Donoghue Took on the role of Managing Director for the Irish Examiner and The Echo in 2023. She joined the Irish Examiner marketing department in 2003 overseeing national marketing campaigns and branding strategies for both titles. Karen O’Donoghue also led the implementation of data analytics and the development of the Irish Examiner subscription service.
Editor-In-Chief	John O'Mahony John O'Mahony was appointed as the new editor of both the Irish Examiner and sister paper The Echo in July 2025. A Cork native, Mr O'Mahony first joined the Irish Examiner as a reporter in 1998, having also worked as a reporter with the Kerry Newspaper, The Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. (In 1999 then Examiner owner, Thomas Crosbie Holdings would acquire The Kingdom, retaining it until its closure in 2011.) From 2003, he worked on the Examiner’s news desk first as Assistant News Editor and then as News Editor. He was appointed Managing Editor Content in 2020. His appointment as editor of the Examiner and Echo followed the May 2025 decision to merge the newsrooms of both papers in response to declining sales of physical papers.
Other Important People	Garry Moroney Chief Executive of Irish Times Designated Activity Company John Hegarty Chairman of the Board of The Irish Times Trust CLG, Fellow Emeritus and former Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Shay Garvey Chairman of the Board of The Irish Times DAC. Co-founder of Frontline Ventures; adviser to the EBRD venture capital programme; Chair of Genio, the Service Reform Fund.
Contact	The Irish Examiner Assumption Road, Blackpoo T23 RCH6 Cork +353 21 4272722 www.irishexaminer.com

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

Headlines	Karen O’Donoghue has been named managing director of the Irish Examiner and The Echo (2023), Accessed on 15 August 2023
Meta Data	Audience data is available via the media sales pages on the Irish Examiner website, this is sourced from Kantar TGI 2022 survey data. This is a biannual nationally representative survey of 4,000 residents in the Republic of Ireland on media consumption, consumer behaviour and social attitudes. In 2019 the Irish Examiner discontinued its participation in the ABC circulation measurement programme following the withdrawal of Mediahuis titles from this programme the previous year. Revenue details are reported for the overall group not for individual titles. Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups. There is currently no standard audience measurement available for print and online news titles in Ireland. Individual titles publish data on readership or users but measurement parameters and sources vary between organisations, therefore it is not possible to report an accurate audience share for the purposes of this project.
Sources	“Irish Examiner and The Echo to merge newsrooms in digital push” Tomorrow’s Publisher 29 May 2025. Accessed on 8 April 2026. Horgan, J. & Flynn, R. (2017), Irish Media A Critical History, Four Courts Press, Dublin About Us Page, Irish Examiner, Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 Irish Newsaper Archive, Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 M/17/068 – Irish Times/Sappho (Irish Examiner), Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (Ireland), Last Accessed on 15 August 2023 FAME Database, Financial Analysis Made Easy. Includes: Company accounts, ratios, activities, ownership and management for the largest 2.6 million UK and Irish companies, summary information for a further 1 million smaller businesses.

Headlines

Karen O’Donoghue has been named managing director of the Irish Examiner and The Echo (2023), Accessed on 15 August 2023

Meta Data

Audience data is available via the media sales pages on the Irish Examiner website, this is sourced from Kantar TGI 2022 survey data. This is a biannual nationally representative survey of 4,000 residents in the Republic of Ireland on media consumption, consumer behaviour and social attitudes.

In 2019 the Irish Examiner discontinued its participation in the ABC circulation measurement programme following the withdrawal of Mediahuis titles from this programme the previous year.

Revenue details are reported for the overall group not for individual titles.

Within the media industry in Ireland reporting on income levels are generally at group level rather than individual title level. On top of this, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are unavailable. Due to these factors it is not possible to report accurately on market share for individual titles or groups.

There is currently no standard audience measurement available for print and online news titles in Ireland. Individual titles publish data on readership or users but measurement parameters and sources vary between organisations, therefore it is not possible to report an accurate audience share for the purposes of this project.

Sources