The Irish News
This would be a notable achievement for a family-owned title in any context, but it is also the case that we are based in the only UK city outside London which is home to three separate dailies as well as a regional edition of The Daily Mirror.
We still believe that change is best introduced from a position of strength, and so, despite our market-leading sales performance, we launched a rebranding project to revitalise our publication, develop our brand and maintain our relevance in an evolving media landscape.
It included 128 consultations and 14 focus groups involving readers and key stakeholders throughout Ireland, north and south, to inform the process. The use of the message 'The Irish News – Trusted Since 1891' underlined both the significance of the paper as an institution within journalism and its role as a thought leader.
Our visual identity was improved, with colour used as a central navigation tool, and new opinion writers, including the RTE and Sky Sports presenter Grainne McElwain and the former BBC Newsnight host Gavin Esler, were recruited. The paper was further boosted by the inclusion of a new 12-page Monday pull-out, the GAAME, reflecting all aspects of the vibrant GAA scene across Ireland.
Our launch (September 25) received an overwhelmingly positive reception, and we are confident that our position in an intensively competitive sector has been protected. In stores where promotional activity took place, our research indicated an average sales increase of 24 per cent. We have also invested heavily in an ambitious digital strategy and an entirely new website and app are due to be unveiled shortly. One of our most important investigations, published simultaneously with The Guardian (July 24), revealed how the phone records of the respected Belfast journalist and former Irish News reporter Barry McCaffrey were secretly searched by police in a scandal which is now being reviewed by a powerful London-based watchdog body.
We also placed a firm spotlight on the conduct of the leading BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan, who issued a public apology after we revealed (August 15) that he had sent sexually explicit images of the later jailed social media star Stephen Bear to colleagues and made crude comments about other BBC figures.
An undercover operation (June 23) captured an exclusive picture setting out the blatantly sectarian symbolism associated with a loyalist group building a bonfire which threatened to destroy a £300,000 facility at a council leisure centre. However, our most poignant edition of the year came on October 14 when we covered the death of our long serving photographic editor and former Olympic boxing medalist Hugh Russell, with a poster front page featuring the simple headline 'Our Champion'. Noel Doran, Editor