A front page from 2011 showing the updated masthead
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Type | Daily newspaper |
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Format | Tabloid |
Owner(s) | Associated Newspapers |
Founded | February 2006 |
Political alignment | Right-wing eurosceptic |
Website | mailonline |
The Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published in Ireland and Northern Ireland by Associated Newspapers. The paper was launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently. The 2009 price is one euro. The aim of this strategy was to attract readers away from the Irish Independent.
Associated Newspapers Ireland employs over 160 people in Ireland. Both the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday, along with their magazines, YOU and TV Week, are printed in Kells and Citywest, Dublin.
British media analyst Roy Greenslade argued that falling sales are because whereas the British version of the Daily Mail acutely understands its readership, "None of that understanding of the culture, politics and genuine interests of the Irish people is evident in the pages of the Irish Daily Mail". By 2009 this policy had changed as it was offering Irish language wallcharts for schoolchildren, and most of its coverage was about Irish subjects, though it is frequently scathing about politicians.
Irish columnists are contributing to the paper, with Ronan Mullen's column, for example, in the Irish Daily Mail since May 2006. Ronan Mullen was previously a columnist with the Irish Examiner. Mary Ellen Synon, a former Sunday Independent columnist who had controversial views on travellers, asylum seekers and the Paralympics is a regular contributor to the paper. Mark Dooley has also served as a columnist since 2006. His popular column "Moral Matters" appears on Wednesdays.