A GROUP OF investors including the former chief executive of the Irish Daily Star have bought The Sunday Business Post.
Paul Cooke, who is the former chief executive of Independent Star Limited, the publisher of the Irish Daily Star, will be the chief executive of the paper. Cooke, along with Dublin-based capital markets firm Key Capital, will take the paper out of examinership after the High Court approved the company’s survival plan.
The Scheme of Arrangement was put forward by the company’s examiner, Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton.
The paper was bought by the now-defunct Thomas Crosbie Holdings in 2002 for €10 million from the Trinity Mirror group. Brindisi, as the Key Capital holding company is called, was able to pick it up for a fraction of that this week, though they are expected to invest €1.2 million in the company.
The paper was put into examinership in March and is set to wipe €1.8 million of debts from its books under the new plan. Much of the savings will come from a reduction in rent and printing costs as well as redundancies and a six per cent pay cut for remaining staff.
Cooke said that the investors recognised how difficult the media landscape is.
“We all recognise just how difficult the newspaper business is at present given the pace and scope of developments in international news media, combined with the challenging advertising market.
We need as a result to embrace these challenges to put this great product on a profitable footing.
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