The Irish Daily Star (formerly known simply as The Star) is a tabloid newspaper published in Ireland by Reach plc,[5] which owns the British Daily Star.
The Irish Daily Star became known for its comprehensive in-depth coverage of and thorough focus on crime, often featuring sensational coverage. It also focuses heavily on celebrity matters, and has a large sports section. Between 2003 and 2011, a Sunday edition was published, as Irish Daily Star Sunday. Like its British tabloid counterpart, the Irish Daily Star has a red-top mast head.
History
First published on 29 February 1988, nominally the paper was the Irish version of the UK tabloid Daily Star. It did, however, contain more Irish content than any similar Irish editions of the UK national newspapers. The tabloid had strong nationalist leanings, claiming on its slogan to be "Better... because we're Irish".
The newspaper's offices were located in Terenure, Dublin 6W, until November 2010. They then relocated to Building 4 of the Dundrum Town Centre complex. The Star employs 70 staff directly.[6] The controlling editor of the paper for many years was Gerard Colleran, who often appears on television programmes such as Tonight with Vincent Browne. Michael O'Kane took over from Colleran as editor of the Irish Daily Star on 25 November 2011. Colleran then became managing director of the tabloid.
In September 2018, Reach plc, publisher of the Mirror, acquired the 50% stake formally owned by Northern & Shell.[7]
In April 2020, the editor Eoin Brannigan left the Irish Daily Star.[8][9]
In July 2020, it was announced that Independent News & Media had reached an agreement to sell their 50% stake in Independent Star to Reach plc. The agreement is subject to competition authority approval and is expected to close in late 2020.[10]
In November 2020, the acquisition of the 50% stake owned by Independent News & Media was approved by the regulator and the minister.[5]
Content
While the Daily Star (UK) focuses almost exclusively on celebrity content, the Irish Daily Star includes mostly coverage of Irish issues and sport.
In Northern Ireland, The Irish Star features a green masthead, in order to distinguish it from the UK version which is also sold there. It also differs from the Irish Daily Star in that it features more news about Northern Ireland.
In USA, the Irish Star features a green masthead, and features news about Ireland.[11]IrishStar.com began in February 2023 using the tagline, The Voice of Irish America.[11]
The 2011 accounts showed that The Irish Daily Star made a profit of €1.44 million for 2011, this was down 63% year-on-year. Revenue was down 20% year-on-year. The company shed 20 staff in 2011, bringing its employment to 118.[32]
Staffing numbers were down to 110 in January 2013, with 80 of those posts full-time and 9 job cuts pending.[33]
Staff numbers reduced to 50 by 31 December 2017.[34]
Kate Middleton photographs and subsequent reorganisation (2012/2013)
The Irish Daily Star published controversial topless pictures of Kate Middleton on 15 September 2012. St James's Palace said there could be "no motivation for this action other than greed".[35] Editor Michael O'Kane defended the publication, saying to the BBC: "I did this as a service to our readers, I'm a little taken aback by the reaction in the UK. It only seems to be an issue in the UK because she is your future queen. But from our point of view in Ireland, Kate Middleton is just another of the fantastic line of celebrities".[36]
In response to the publication of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton, later that day Northern & Shell, the co-owner of the Irish Daily Star, announced it was "taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture".[37]
On 17 September 2012, editor Michael O'Kane was suspended pending an investigation into the matter.[38] The following day, it was reported that the "Northern & Shell company was indicating that the company's focus was on exiting the publishing joint venture" rather than closure specifically.[39] It was subsequently reported, that the contract between Northern & Shell and Independent News & Media allows either one of them to give notice of an intention to withdraw and that lawyers from Northern & Shell were trying to extricate Desmond's company from the agreement.[40]
On 24 November 2012, Michael O'Kane resigned as editor of the Irish Daily Star.[41] The same day, The Telegraph reported that IN&M and N&S were working together "to secure the future of the newspaper" and that there was "no change to the status of the 25-year-old joint venture" but that there will be further changes, to be announced in the future, at the paper.[42] The following day, The Sunday Times reported that the changes will be "rationalisation" in nature and would be announced over the coming weeks.
On 10 January 2013, the reorganisation was announced. IN&M assumed full executive responsibility for the Irish Daily Star. These included pay cuts for all staff, nine staff redundancies and cost cuts of overheads. The Irish Daily Star will relocate to Talbot Street in Dublin from its current offices in Dundrum. Gerry Lennon has been appointed managing director of the Irish Daily Star in addition to his existing role of managing director of the Sunday World.[43][44][45]
The Irish Daily Star is also going to start sharing some functions with the Sunday World.[33]
