The purchase of the Irish Examiner and other Landmark Media Investments assets by The Irish Times has been approved by Minister for Communications Denis Naughten on media plurality grounds. The proposed deal was agreed back in December but it then required a number of regulatory clearances with the minister’s sanction being the final approval.
A number of legal and compliance steps will now be taken in the coming weeks to finalise the deal, The Irish Times said. In a note to staff, The Irish Times said it will brief staff in Dublin, Cork, the regional titles and radio stations. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) approved the deal in April on competition grounds.
The CCPC found no evidence that The Irish Times and the Irish Examiner were each other’s closest competitor in the publication and sale of daily national newspapers or in the sale of advertising, whether in print or online. It said that while sales of The Irish Times are mainly in Leinster, the vast majority of sales of the Irish Examiner are in Munster.
