Subdued blue lighting and a surfeit of Irish Independents, Stars, and the South African magazine, Home & Garden, greeted the 200 shareholders who appeared at Independent Newspapers a.g.m. yesterday where they were told that the group was "locally, nationally and globally" for the people.
Following an address by the group chairman, Dr A.J.F. O'Reilly, a half-hour video presentation underlined the group's empire which now stretches from Ireland to New Zealand via South Africa, and had pre-tax profits of £100 million last year.
Including the Australian figures in the accounts, Dr O'Reilly said that over £500 million was received in advertising revenues last year.
He re-stated the company's philosophy that, "we are not right wing and not left wing - we are for the people and for the country". "We appoint the boards of our papers throughout the world, which state what the policy of those papers is. The boards appoint the editors, and allow the editors to get on with the job without fear of interference," he said.
On developments in Ireland, he said that The Irish Independent's new Weekend magazine had added substantially to Saturday's circulation, while the new Internet site, currently with 400,000 monthly hits, was the fastest growing Irish site.
After the meeting, Mr Liam Healy, chief executive, said that the Saturday magazine had been "a magnificent success", although it is not in profit. "It takes a period of time to get it into profit...but we will get it into profit," he said.
Commenting on declining circulation figures in the Sunday Independent - a drop of 6.4 per cent to 320,000 in the last audit - he said that the numbers were still above circulation figures of 260,000 in 1995 before the Irish Press group closed. "I think when people talk about a decline, they should measure it in terms of something like that," he said.
He said that a concentrated approach would be taken as the single owner of Newspaper Publishing, publishers of the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. "We have a plan for the recovery of the London Independent group," he said. "No exact amount" would be spent on investing in Independent Publishing, he added, rather it was a question of providing what was required. The group's profit target is a circulation of 250,000 for the English daily and 300,000 for the Sunday edition within three to five years. The daily's current circulation is about 220,000 and "stabilised", while the Sunday's circulation had grown by 7 per cent since March, standing at 260,000, shareholders were told.
Dr O'Reilly said that the acquisition of the company would have "an inspirational effect" on all its newspapers. "It will be a long haul, it will not be easy...the long term value of such a brand to your company could add substantially to the value of our worldwide assets," he said.
