Conrad Black rules out buying into Irish market

Canadian newspaper proprietor Lord Conrad Black has no interest in buying Irish media assets.

Speaking to The Irish Times after addressing the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference in Dublin, Lord Black, chairman and chief executive of Hollinger, said he was previously interested in the Irish market when it was more competitive.

"In the days when there was more competition we had some interest when Ingersoll was around. But that whole thing fell apart. I wouldn't want to compete with my friends the O'Reillys, of course," he said.

Asked if he would be interested in any Irish newspapers in the future, he said: "No, not at the moment. But, I mean, it looks like it's pretty much stitched up. There is not a whole lot available, is there?" he joked to Mr Gavin O'Reilly, chief operations officer of Independent News & Media, who was standing nearby.

Lord Black made a brief foray into the Irish newspaper market at the time of the collapse of the Press Group when there were reports that his Telegraph Group was going to bid for the Press with a consortium led by the Sunday Business Post. However, this plan never got off the ground.

Lord Black owns the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post. He also publishes the Spectator magazine in London.

Lord Black also spoke about current dissatisfaction among shareholders of his own Hollinger Group over the amount of control he exercises and the money he draws from the company. Lord Black said an independent committee, headed by a former SEC figure, was looking into certain matters.

The committee is looking at certain payments paid to directors about which some shareholders have raised concerns. Lord Black said he had no difficulty justifying those things, they were done at arm's length and were appropriate.

Earlier at the opening ceremony to the World Newspaper Congress (which is organised by WAN), Mr O'Reilly said the pendulum had swung back in favour of newspapers and once they relied on their local relevance they would prosper. But he said the Irish newspaper market was the most competitive in the world with 30-plus national titles being marketed to more than three million people. He said "media fragmentation" was rising all the time, but advertisers, more than ever, wanted "definable reach".

He accused certain publishers of being afraid to put the "true economic price" on their product and said, while this might work in the short term, in the long term they could end up in a "vicious spiral of discounting".

"Shouldn't a newspaper be more expensive than a cappuccino?" he asked delegates.