Irish News Editor Noel Doran said: " "I'd like to thank Daily Ireland for the trust it has displayed in the outstanding election service provided by the Irish News. The bill is in the post..."

Ouch.

The ABC figures were promises at the end of April, and again by the end of May. Now they're promised for this month. Oddly enough according to the ABC site, DI's membership has only recently been approved.

btw, still no reply from them as yet on those libel actions.

Do you like the way I blatantly nicked that second story off you Jimmy? ;o)

I actually closed the comments for this thread, but it obviously hasn't worked.

Ah.. that may have been my fault, Gonzo.. oops.. sorry..

Was there a reason for closing the comments?

Yes.

Yes.

This ridiculous republican vanity publishing project is about to hit the buffers and everyone, I mean EVERYONE, should be delighted by the ensuing distaster.
Nobody has ever made a go of an overtly party/sectarian/tribal/whatever newspaper in NI and it is timely that the Shinners have proved themselves to be no exception.
People may be prepared to suck this crap up for free but they clearly won't actually pay for it themselves, thank Christ.
There may be hope for us all yet. And no hope for the disgusting propogandists of Andersonstown or elsewhere.
News Letter now please take note.

Whatever my views I will draw the line at taking delight in the fact that people have lost their jobs.

My impression, speaking obviously as someone unsympathetic to its political slant, is that it has made little effort to persuade; my reading of it brings me no closer too understanding why people would believe what they profess to believe. Instead I detect a defensive tone which assumes that its world view is already shared by its readership. As far as it goes of course that assumption may be correct, but it would appear that this constituency is too small to sustain its ambitions.

Jimmy, I am humbled by your generosity of spirit. Because when DI goes under, everyone else I know is going to laugh like a drain.

DAILY IRELAND GOING UNDER..............

Gosh... Gulp....Grief.....

What will we all do................

BACK TO THE ANDREX THEN.

Btw.....

The D.I returns were giving an estimated average of sales around 4100.

Let's hit the library next and burn all the books.

Fanny

Nobody has ever made a go of an overtly party/sectarian/tribal/whatever newspaper in NI

The Irish News takes a blantantly SDLP party line and is extremly successfull.

Well that's where you're wrong PS, because the Irish News predates the SDLP by a good 80 years.

Everyone else in the world, meanwhile, can tell the difference between an independent newspaper with an editorial line (however aligned to one party) and a pure propoganda rag, set up and run specifically for the purpose.

Wonderful stuff pol. I think I'm going to steal that line.

Yes Pol, wouldn't this be the same Andersonstown News Group that [threatened to] sued Newshound a couple of years back for publishing listings from The Blanket? Just because the knew Newshound couldn't afford to stand up to them?

Censorship, how are ye? Ironic really, when you realise that if it wasn't for Newshound's listings now nobody outside West Belfast would even have heard of their latest rag.

Don't assume this will close. It would only be sharp business practice to launch a media outlet with more journalists to ensure the thing goes off with a bang, getting the freshest and most enthusiastic writing to hook readers, setting up formats that can be carried on with less well qualified and cheaper staff etc. It could boil down to a full colour propaganda sheet with local ads, but with free newspapers subsisting on the same diet, I'd be surprised to see it go soon, especially with the scale economies of the AN stable.

Unless the RM get sick of their own voice. Its one thing shouting at other people, especially ones you don't like, but talking to yourself is not healthy.

I'm not so sure. DI was launched on the assumption that subsidies could be bullied out of the Brits amid accusations of 'discrimination!' if they were not forthcoming. Amazingly, this proved a bridge too far even for Jonathan Powell to justify.

The DI business model is operating minus one of its fundamental assumptions and he is a shrewd enough businessman to realise the situation is hopeless. Hence all the squealing of 'discrimination!' now to salvage some sort of political points from the ensuring disaster.

DI does not get enough advertising as it is to sustain itself, hence its current troubles; losing a quarter of its staff is not going to help, regardless.

It is not attracting enough local ads now to meet its labour costs (firing the news editor? With the track record of some of its more notorious staff, DI needs all the editors they can get to catch stuff before it goes to print!), how will it be able to have the manpower to canvass 32 counties for local ads to sustain itself in the smaller model Aquifer proposes? Impossible, and not a smart business plan.

DI is not using smart business sense in a capitalist sense nor in a fair labour sense. It isn't making the revenue to sustain itself. Working staff on the cheap may get them by in West Belfast, but not in the long term in the national market.

Either the strategies must change or the paper will die on the vine, or perhaps scale itself back to a Belfast daily. However, that will be tough going, as its main competition in that market will be its own stable.

In that arena their local weeklies already duplicate the same material (something that their locals have always done), and it is and will be DI that suffers in sales. Even with an overlap of local ads if they persuade enough traders to go for daily ads in addition to the weekly ones. Local traders may not have the budget to include that kind of advertising however and will be forced to choose between what is good for their own business and what will pull DI/ATNG out of a spot. A tough choice if DI is fooling around with its sales figures to save face.

Is the ATNG contemplating consolidation of all its local titles into one daily, covering the whole city everyday in one paper? That is one solution to ensure DI survives, at the expense of their other product.

DI is a vanity project in some respects and its future depends on how much vanity is invested in it.

Fanny - as a resident of Andersonstown I resent your vitriolic attack on the good people who reside there. I strongly recommend that you put up or shut up regarding an area you clearly know nothing about. What propaganda are you referring to?

I would be very surprised to see this paper close at all - despite sluggish sales I don't expect ATNG to give up on it too easy and reckon that it will stick about for the forseeable future.I would expect its readership to grow slowly but steadily if it can see out the current problems.

What attack on the people of Andersontown, Snapper old boy? I have made no such attack nor referred to the people of Andersonstown at all. Why did your fevered imagination conjur up such a reference? You shouldn't mistake criticism of Daily Ireland for criticism of the people of Andersonstown - I certainly wouldn't, for clearly the people of Andersonstown aren't buying Daily Ireland...

XYZ, I heard it said by another before DI launched that there just weren't enough Curley's ads in the world to support a daily newspaper and that rather simplistic assessment now appears more sophisticated than all the pre-launch market research put together.

How predictable of you to do anything but answer my question. As I said put up or shut up - what evidence have you got on a demographic basis that the people in Andersonstown do not read the DI? Or what evidence do you have that the paper spurns out propaganda? Im afraid my dear that you are very much mistaken and I suggest you direct your sectarian bile somewhere else.

Once again catholics daren't raise their head and speak up for themselves. God forbid a community rallies together and produces a paper which challenges the status quo. Why are you so fascinated in this quality paper? Does it threaten you in any way? I have never heard such ranting and raving in all my life. It would appear that they are doing something right if they have you in such a tizzy dear! Maybe you should take a wee lie down and rest your weary head.

Fanny, please stick to your argument! We getting more heat than light at the moment.

For the record fanny - the people who produce the paper by and large live in West Belfast and very accurately represent the views articulated by that community. At least have the b***s to stand by what you said - stop dressing it up to avoid looking sectarian. To avoid anymore manplaying I will not contribute anymore to this post - I have made my point.

Snapper

"what evidence do you have that the paper spurns out propaganda?"

The evidence - every edition so far?

"what evidence have you got on a demographic basis that the people in Andersonstown do not read the DI"

DI aims to be at least top half of Ireland paper with aspirations to be All-Ireland. With sales claims of 4100 to 10000 (on this thread) that would indicate that either every edition is being bought exclusively in Andersonstown or it is not selling well in Andersonstown.

Overall some are being overly-sensitive about the problems of DI - the Daily View just failed despite it trying to project a non-sectarian image - it doesn't make liberals on here think their views are not commonly held? So why should it be any different for republicans?

Unionist glee at the problems is also overly excessive. Yes, the supposed midas touch of republicanism takes another bashing especially post-Christmas 2004 and possibly that Project Unity 2016 isn't grabbing the nationalist public imagination. However, Unionism cannot afford to be complacent republicanism will want to come back.

Catholic population of Northern Ireland - 800,000
Sales of Daily Ireland - 4,100

There - now I've made my point as well.

At no point have I criticised the people of Andersonstown or 'Catholic people' at all and it is pure poo-stirring to deflect the argument in this direction. I'm the only man being 'played' here.

Snapper - to be fair I can't see anything in Fanny's remarks which could be read as a slur on the people of A'town.

If I'm to say anything about the people of Andersonstown, it'll be this: while they may have to put up with provo editorialising in their local paper in order to find out what's on in the leisure centre and see who's celebrating their 19th birthday this week, they clearly aren't prepared to suck it up every day in the form of a wannabe 'national' paper. Nor are they apparently too impressed by the mentality of a movement whose every pronouncement screams "We are the community" regardless of whether the community is buying their line or not.
Which is entirely to their credit.

My wife is from Andytown by the way. Although admittedly she does do my head in.

[Play the ball, pol - ed. Mod]

it doesn't make liberals on here think their views are not commonly held?

They're not, though... :)))

Death of an historic Irish Catholic Church. One of the first major Irish Catholics Church's in America. St. Bridget lasted through famines, wwworkers laws, drugs, prostitution, mental illness, homeless people all over the streets, cultural changes and so on. The church could survive all the deadly sins except one: greet. Once the community was gentrified and property became so valuable, it seemed necessary to sell. One large hunk of money, put into a bank, or maybe a defense fund for all the sex with children, either way, not a good reason to close a needed church.
thanks'
Clayton

PS if you can help please contact me.

This afternoon the diocese removed artifacts from St Brigid church.
This is part of the Keely organ case being loaded into a rental Ryder
truck with NJ tags. The beautiful had craved posts were not even
wrapped as they were loaded into the truck. Some care for the
preservation of the artifacts, is all I can say. Dollie and Edwin
Torres were driving by the church when they observed the truck, and
were able to video tape about 1/2 hour of the removal. Their images are
much more powerful. Edwin was able to obtain a ladder from Bill next
door to St. Brigid and we photographed from the top of a ladder
overlooking the the gate into the school yard. The loaders were not
enthusiastic about being photographed and they blocked the gate of the
school with plywood so that you could not see what was going on from
the ground level. Will forward photgraphs of that as well. This is
what realignment is about-removal and demolition.
P1010096.JPG
SAVE SAINT BRIGID'S RALLY IN TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK , July 17th, 2 - 5 PM.
To Read up: http://www.savestbrigidsnow.netfirms.com
An historic structure. A church that served this community for years.