Prompted by an Irish-based blogger, Adam Maguire, I've been looking at a section of the official ABC statistics that rarely attracts attention: the sales of British-based national titles in the Irish Republic. First off, as both Maguire and Emmet Oliver in the Irish Times point out, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Irish invasion concerns the fortunes of Associated Newspapers. It has spent many millions of euros trying to elbow aside Ireland's best-selling titles, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent, colloquially known as the Indo and the Sindo.
Associated's initial assault was the purchase, in September 2001, of Ireland on Sunday and its rapid transformation into a green-tinged imitation of its successful British title, the Mail on Sunday. In order to win attention - and an anticipated sales target of 60,000 - the paper was marketed aggressively. Its cover price was absurdly low and it gave away a series of CDs and DVDs. This level of marketing, unprecedented in Ireland, resulted in a substantial sales lift-off. By 2003 it was selling 168,000 copies but it tailed off after that and the latest figure, for the last six months of 2005, revealed an average sale of 127,399. The Sindo, by contrast, sold 286,613.
It has also cost Associated a great deal of money. As Lisa O'Carroll revealed nine days ago the company's Dublin operation - meaning Ireland on Sunday - declared losses last year of €60m (£42m). Undeterred by the red ink, the company launched an Irish edition of the Daily Mail in February this year to take on the Indo. Again, there was a lot of hype, including regular giveaways of CDs, DVDs and books. This helped the paper to achieve an 82,000 sale in March. By last month that had slipped to 54,641, and reports suggest is has hardly dented the Indo's 160,000 sale.
During my summer in Ireland I've been reading both the Irish Daily Mail and Ireland on Sunday, and I believe the editorial approach has played a major part in their failure to grab the public's imagination. It's not so much the mixing of Irish and British content, though there are oddities, such as Anglo-centric features with British case histories (and who in Ireland cares for the Richard Kay column? Or Ephraim Hardcastle for that matter? Sorry Richard. Sorry Peter). No, what matters is a paper's heart and its values. The Mail's success in Britain stems from its acute understanding of its readers. It stands for something and it springs from the culture. (Many people may not like it, but they should at least understand why it sells so well).
None of that understanding of the culture, politics and genuine interests of the Irish people is evident in the pages of the Irish Daily Mail. I'm no fan of the Indo's politics but I know where it's coming from and I'm aware of the way it represents a large section of the Irish population. It is one of them, while the Mail is a mere interloper, a foreign publication pretending to be something it isn't. It is professionally produced, of course. It looks like a proper newspaper, as you would expect from the Mail. But a bit of green in the masthead doesn't make it Irish. It is as authentic as one of those terrible Irish theme pubs that have emerged in every capital city across Britain. It's a pretence. It doesn't belong.
Sure, 50,000-odd isn't a bad sale for a new paper in a relatively small market. But it will never compete with the Indo or the far superior Irish Times. Nor, at the other end of the market, does it look likely to reach the sales success of the imported red-tops with their brash content. Let's face it, the Daily Mail is not even a truly British paper. Its kilted edition for Scotland has done well enough, mainly due to out-spending its rivals on marketing and by discounting. But it hasn't really dented that market either. The Daily Mail is essentially English, isn't it? Well, isn't it?
