Sunday Tribune: Encyclopedia II - Sunday Tribune - Second near collapse

Sunday Tribune - Second near collapse

The paper became one of Ireland's most successful newspapers in the 1980s, eating into the market of The Sunday Press, which like other Press titles was hæmoraging readers through underfunding, an aging market and poor management decisions. Replicating McLoughlin's mistake of a decade earlier, against advice Browne launched a new sister paper, the Dublin Tribune, which collapsed pulling the Sunday Tribune down with it. It was saved from backruptcy by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's's Independent News and Media (then called Independent Newspapers plc), which acquired a 29.9% stake in the company. Even before the investment the relationship between Browne and the board of the company had been fraught. In the aftermath of the Dublin Tribune debaclé he was sacked as editor.

Independent Newspapers then made an offer to increase its stake to a majority level, however the Minister for Industry and Commerce, Desmond O'Malley, blocked the takeover attempt in 1992. Despite this, it is believed by many Irish business journalists that Independent Newspapers effectively control the Tribune via a series of loans. Matt Cooper was the editor of the newspaper from 1996 to 2002. Under his direction the newspaper became known for investigative journalism. Though the future of the newspaper has long thought to be uncertain it has continued to survive in the increasingly competitive Irish newspaper market. Its survival was helped by the collapse of the Irish Press group, which removed its highly popular Sunday Press from the Sunday market. Though many of its readers would not necessarily have been politically close to the Sunday Tribune they were closer to it than the main other alternative, the Sunday Independent.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Second near collapse", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki