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The Irish independent (colloquially known as The Indo) has long been Ireland’s top selling daily newspaper with an average daily print circulation of just over 61,000 copies in 2020. As of 2025 it still has the largest readership of any daily paper in Ireland with an average if 366,000 adults reading it every day. The Irish Independent covers a diverse range of areas, including news, politics, business, entertainment, sports and culture, as well as opinion pieces and content related to lifestyle and travel. It is the flagship publication of Mediahuis Ireland (formerly Independent News and Media or INM), Ireland’s largest media conglomerate, and a subsidiary of Mediahuis N.V.


The Irish Independent was formed in 1905 by William Martin Murphy, the divisive Irish nationalist businessman. It was Ireland’s first modern mass market newspaper, was half the price of its competitors, and contained novel “populist features” such as sports coverage and a women’s page. In the early 20th century The Irish independent established itself as a conservative voice, siding with business owners during the 1913 lockout and calling for the execution of the leaders of the 1916 rising. The independent was run through Murphy’s company Independent Newspapers Limited, which would later become Independent News and Media (INM).


In 1973 control of INM left the Murphy family for the first time, when Kerrygold founder Tony O’Reilly bought a 28% stake in the company, and became CEO and Chairperson. O’Reilly, a former international Rugby Union player often considered to be Ireland’s first billionaire, was simultaneously CEO of the H.J Heinz Company. Under his leadership, the paper’s politics became more market liberal and economically right of centre.


Ownership was transferred again in May 2012 after Communicorp founder and billionaire Denis O’Brien gradually built a 29.99% stake in the company, becoming the single largest shareholder. O’Brien remained the single most influential shareholder until 2019 when INM was acquired by current owners Mediahuis NV, and became Mediahuis Ireland. Mediahuis NV’s shareholders comprise Mediahuis Partners NV (50.6%), Concentra (32.7%) and VP Exploitatie (16.7%).


(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 Irish Independent 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 Year1905
Founder
  • William Martin Murphy
    Is the founder of Independent Newspapers Limited, which would become Independent News and Media in 1973. He is arguably Ireland’s first „Press Baron“, having bought the Irish Daily Independent in 1900 and merging it with the Daily Nation 1905. This new publication was launched as The Irish Independent, an affordable, mass circulation newspaper. William Martin Murphy also served as a Member of Parliament representing Dublin as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1885 to 1892. A leading promoter of tram development in Ireland, he led Dublin business owners' opposition to the Dublin Transport and General Workers Union 1913 Lockout, for which he earned the nickname William „Murder Murphy“ in the Union Presses.
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
  • Cormac Bourke
    Editor of The Irish Independent and Independent.ie since September 2022. Former Editor of The Sunday Independent (2015 – 2019). Previously worked for Ireland on Sunday, Dublin Daily and the Irish Daily Star.
ContactIndependent House
27 - 32 Talbot Street
D01 X2E1 Dublin 1
info@independent.ie
+353 (0)1 705 5333
www.independent.ie
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta DataAudience share total taken from publisher statement, which looked at average daily sales from January to June 2020.

Audience share percentage (2.4%) calculated by taking this number as a percentage of total audience of 2,580,000 (65% of 16+ Population).

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