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INN collapse may lead to radio news service
04 October 2009 By Samantha McCaughren
A number of groups are considering setting up a news service for radio s tat ions following the decision to close down Independent Network News (INN) at the end of the month.
UTV, Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp, Sunday Business Post owner Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) and former INN journalists are among those actively looking at providing an alternative service, according to well-placed radio sources. The INN directors decided that the service could no longer be supported at a meeting last Wednesday.
Sources said that INN broke even last year, but the organisation is understood to be projecting losses of €70,000 for this month, rising to €100,000 for each on the last two months of the year.
The company was initially owned by 16 independent radio stations but, as the sector consolidated, UTV and Communicorp became larger shareholders. Sources close to INN said that the smaller shareholders may have considered investing in the service to get it through its difficulties, but that the larger backers were not supportive of putting up cash.
The groups interested in replacing the service already have news teams, so providing a news service could be an additional revenue stream at a time when ad revenue is under pressure. UTV employs more than 30 journalists across its radio stations, which include FM104 and Q102.
Communicorp owns Newstalk and Today FM and has a well-developed newsroom. It already provides news services to the iRadio group of stations, and would be in a strong position to sell its news service into commercial stations.
TCH has a network of news journalists in its national and regional newspapers and is also an investor in several radio stations, including Red FM in Cork. A number of journalists at INN are interested in providing a service, but would probably want to link up with an investor. It understood that TV3 is not actively considering providing a service.
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