COPIES of the London Times with "Printed in the Republic of Ireland" on the masthead are not all produced here. Some are printed near Liverpool and offered for sale as if they were printed in Ireland.
It is believed that, of the 25,000 copies a day printed for distribution in Ireland, only 10,000 are printed under contract by the Examiner's plant in Cork. The rest are being printed at Knowsley near Liverpool. Most are being given away free as part of a special promotion.
The London Times is trying to build its Irish circulation by giving away free copies in Dublin and Cork, by a major advertising campaign, an emphasis on its Dublin "news team" and "a new Irish flavour".
Printing in Ireland was part of that flavour. However, the Cork plant can only print about 10,000 copies without disrupting production of the Examiner and the Evening Echo.
The difference between the two issues is seen on two pages, five and seven. The Examiner printing presses cannot print colour on these two pages. The Times, as available in Munster, has black and white advertising on those pages. The Times available in Dublin has colour advertising on these pages.
A spokeswoman for the Times in Dublin said that printing the legend "printed in Ireland" on issues printed in Liverpool was an oversight and would be corrected immediately. It was the very success of the paper which had led to it being printed in Knowsley, she said.
The Examiner is printing copies of the Times every day and a number of sections of the Sunday Times. It is paid for the use of its presses, but more importantly it can buy its newsprint through News International, the owners of the Times and Sunday Times. This means it gets its newsprint considerably more cheaply, as it avails of News International's bulk purchase power.
Other News International titles, the News of the World and the Sun, are being printed by the Belfast Telegraph.
Both the Sun and the Sunday Times have been involved in an aggressive marketing drive in Ireland in the past few years. The Sun now has a circulation of 59,410 audited sales and the Sunday Times has 66,235. They both offer Irish editions, usually with an Irish front page story and Irish television listing, reviews and columnists.
The Times says it is offering an international edition and that its Irish staff will write for a newspaper that will sell to a broad readership outside Ireland.
The last audited circulation figures for the Times in Ireland showed 4,100 a day up to December of last year. When asked if the Times planned to seek advertising revenue from its Irish sales, all the spokeswoman would say was that its advertisers were "aware of the value of the Irish market".