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The Sunday World was Ireland’s first tabloid newspaper,and is currently Ireland's second-best selling Sunday Paper. It describes itself as “The People's Paper”, and, as of 2020, it has a circulation of 114,000. Readership figures for 2025 reached 325,000 on average each Sunday. 


The Sunday World was launched by Hugh McLoughlin and Gerry McGuinness on 25 March 1973, via The Creation Group, which had been launched by McLoughlin in 1956. Upon its initial publication, the Sunday World broke new ground in layout, content, agenda, columnists and use of sexual imagery. Being a tabloid newspaper, The Sunday World is characterized by bold, attention grabbing headlines and stories, often focusing on high profile criminal cases and court proceedings, and other sensationalist stories, which may not receive as much coverage elsewhere. The publication also includes celebrity news and gossip, as well as lifestyle and human interest content, and horoscopes and puzzles.


The Creation Group went into liquidation in 1977 and were forced to sell off titles, until Independent Newspapers and Media (INM) bought a 54% stake in the company. The Sunday World was acquired from the shareholders of INM in 2019 by Mediahuis NV. INM was rebranded as Mediahuis Ireland which remains a subsidiary of Mediahuis NV. MEdiahuis NV is in turn owned by Mediahuis Partners NV (50.6%), Concentra (32.7%) and VP Exploitatie (16.7%).


In 2020, The Sunday World extended into the digital realm with the launch of Sundayworld.com and an associated app. A podcast associated with the paper – “Crime World” fronted by journalist Nicola Tallant – garnered a significant following, frequently topping podcast charts for Irish content. Such was the success of Crime World that in November 2025, Sundayworld.com was rebranded as Crimeworld.com a reflection both of the Mediahuis’s wider digital transformation strategy and a shift towards more niche content than that associated with legacy print titles.


(Last updated in April 2026)

Key Facts

Audience ShareMissing Data
Ownership TypePrivate
Geographic CoverageNational
Content TypePaid
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Operating CompanyMediahuis Ireland Limited
Identifier: Company Number: IE 153066, Companies Registration Office Ireland

Ownership

Ownership StructureThe Sunday World is owned by Mediahuis Ireland (Formerly Independent News and Media), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. Mediahuis' largest shareholders include the Belgian Baert Family (29.5%) via their 90% ownership Concentra, the Dutch van Puijenbroek Family (16.7%) via their 100% ownership of VP Exploitatie, and the Belgian Thmoas Leysen (13.25%) via his 26.5.% ownership of Mediahuis Partners NV.
Voting RightsMissing Data
Individual Owner

Operating Company

Facts

Founding Year1973
Founder
  • Hugh McLoughlin
    Established a tailoring business with his sister in 1935, before becoming involved with a printing company called Fleet, who published publications for Greyhound owners. In 1956 he started The Creation Group, which published a number of magazines, including Creation, a fashion and decor magazine edited by his wife, as well as The Farmers Journal, Women's Way and Business and Finance. Hugh McLoughlin went on to launch the Sunday Tribune in 1980 and the Daily News in 1982. In retirement McLaughlin invented a machine, the Water Hog, that removed water from cricket pitches and putting greens.
  • Gerry McGuinness
    Managed Dublin’s Carlton Cinema in the early 1960s, before becoming Managing Director of The Creation Group. For a brief period was next door neighbours with former Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The two houses are allegedly connected by an underground tunnel.
CEO
  • Sheena Peirse

    Sheena Peirse took over as CEO at Mediahuis Ireland in August 2025 after former CEO Peter Vandermeersch stood down. Peirse originally arrived at Mediahuis in 2019 just after it was acquired (as Independent News and Media) from its previous shareholders.
    She was originally appointed as digital director, with responsibility for monetizing  the company’s hitherto paywall-free websites and integrating its print and digital operations. She became Chief Customer Officer in 2021.

    Peirse has been steeped in digital media since the internet entered public consciousness in the 1990s, initially working for an academic publisher in Cambridge and then briefly working at Express Newspapers. In both contexts she worked to transition legacy print-based operations to exploit online affordances. 
    In 2000, she then moved to work as a producer at ITV franchise United News and Media just as it completed a £UK7 bn merger with Carlton Communications. Having worked to develop digital broadcast content there, she moved to Channel4.com in May 2003. She stayed with Channel 4 for nearly a decade graduating to Managing Editor, Online by 2010. A six year stint as Editorial Director, Online at ITV followed before she crossed the Irish Sea to join Mediahuis Ireland.
    Peirse has been credited with not just the shift to digital subscriptions as the core of Mediahuis Ireland’s revenue base but also the company’s broader transition to becoming audio and video producer for online/podcast markets.

Editor-In-Chief
  • Brian Farrell
    The Editor-in-Chief of Sunday World
ContactIndependent House
27 - 32 Talbot Street
D01 X2E1 Dublin 1
news@sundayworld.com
+353 (0)1 705 5333
www.sundayworld.com
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta DataCIrculation of 114,854 taken from publishers statement , reflects average sales from January to June 2020.

No information about voting rights of shareholders available.

Revenue, operating Profit and Advertising not available at level of Publication.

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