Thomas Crosbie Holdings, which owns the Irish Examinerand the Sunday Business Posthas acquired The Irish Postfrom Jefferson Smurfit Group in a deal worth £1.7 million sterling (€2.66 million).
The acquisition is the latest part of an aggressive expansion programme by the company, which now brings it into the English newspaper market for the first time.
It is the seventh acquisition of a newspaper title by Thomas Crosbie Holdings in the past two years and the group now has 13 newspaper titles in the Republic, Northern Ireland and England.
As well as newspapers, Thomas Crosbie Holdings has interests in the new media sector through Thomas Crosbie Media, and in the radio market with Northwest Radio, MidWest Radio and RedFM.
The Irish Posttabloid paper was established in 1970 and is sold in British cities with a strong Irish community including Liverpool, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.
The paper, which has an ABC audited circulation of over 31,400 copies, offers news from Ireland and receives a strong proportion of its advertising from Irish-based companies.
Thomas Crosbie Holdings said it plans to grow the Irish Postby sourcing content from its Irish based publications and utilising advertising synergies.
Mr Anthony Dinan, managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, said the company was confident it could grow the paper.
