Thomas Crosbie Holdings, publisher of The Examiner, has reported a fall in profits from £1.1 million in 1995 to £923,000 last year. But when a special once-off gain of £350,000 from the sale of Press Association shares is excluded from the 1995 accounts, Crosbie had an increase in operating profits of 23 per cent.

Apart from the contribution from its two daily newspaper titles, the 1996 results also include contributions from the group's provincial newspapers - the Western People and Water- ford News & Star - as well as from the shareholdings in MidWest and North West Radio.