Flying the flag for Irish media ownership

Lord Kilclooney, former UUP MP, has built an empire North and South, writes Emmet Oliver

With every passing day another local newspaper franchise in Ireland seems to pass into the hands of a large listed media company, usually from Britain.

Some observers believe this is an unremarkable trend: it is simply the workings of the free market in a previously hidebound and sheltered industry. However, others believe it threatens the essence of local news.

Those who belong to this second group have an unlikely champion in Lord Kilclooney of Armagh, better known to many as John Taylor, former Ulster Unionist MP. While he remains politically committed to unionism, he is more than happy to fight off the incursions into Ireland by Britain's media giants.

"I am a great believer in these things remaining local, whether it's radio or newspapers. When it comes to the media, I may be a unionist, but I am more of a nationalist. I am trying to keep them here in Ireland. I am shocked by way they are selling them out." He says that, so far, the buyers have been from Britain, but this might change too. "The next thing is they will be owned by an American company. It loses its local essence."

Not only is Lord Kilclooney bullish about keeping newspapers in local hands, he also responds defiantly when asked if newspapers have a long-term future. "Oh yes, weekly local newspapers, in particular, have a future. You are getting information in the locals that you cannot get anywhere else, whether it's the local cricket team or Gaelic team . . . The other point is you cannot take a computer to bed with you, whereas you can take the Roscommon Champion with you," he says.

When he says "local", Lord Kilclooney means based in the community and preferably with a family dimension. In his case it truly is a family affair: his wife is involved in production, his daughter is company secretary, his son works on staff and marketing and his son-in-law manages the Northern Group, one of his newspaper subsidiaries. Asked about the performance of the group at present, Lord Kilclooney is circumspect. "I don't quote these things, but it's doing well." As for wider industry trends, he says the UK advertising market is poor, but there is little sign of a drop in Northern Ireland and things are going "up and up" in the Republic.

Asked to compare his role in the newspaper business with his previous life as an Ulster Unionist MP and as part of the negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement, he comes down in favour of the former. "I have found this far more enjoyable . . . I get a great deal of satisfaction that we have managed to retain within the ownership of this island 25 weekly newspaper titles and now, in the last few months, six radio stations."

His eulogising of local endeavour and community entrepreneurship does not stop there. Lord Kilclooney praises businessmen like Seán Quinn, for example. "He is exactly what I like to see on this island. There is no reason why other people can't do the same."

Lord Kilclooney's media assets essentially arise from two companies: Alpha, which owns the newspapers, and Northern Media Group, which owns the radio stations. Northern Media Group also involves shareholders like the Irish News and River Media, which is owned by radio investors Tim Collins and Pádraig O'Dwyer. Lord Kilclooney owns more than 50 per cent of Alpha, while his brother-in-law Robert Todd owns more than 35 per cent.

Asked if he would sell to an outside company, he rules it out. "Very unlikely. I am not that kind of person. I am not one of these people who goes in to make a quick buck. I live very simply. I would rather see the company survive and the papers and radio stations remain in local ownership here in Ireland," he says.

"I am not really interested in money at all. I am interested in seeing these things progressing, being able to withstand any competition from English, Scottish or international companies."

More than a few curious eyebrows will be raised at the idea of Lord Kilclooney, ardent unionist, defending Irish newspapers and championing Irish ownership. He explains the rationale simply: "Johnson Press could tomorrow morning be owned by Americans or Germans . . . or more likely Chinese. I think that is contrary to what local papers are for. They should be locally owned, locally staffed and identify with the local community."

Lord Kilclooney, who lives in Armagh, is at his papers almost every day. He spends a lot of time in Birr, Co Offaly, the head office of his southern papers. At midday every Friday his accountant calls him to update him on the company's latest cash position. It is the most important call of the week.

Newspapers are clearly a passion, but it does reduce the time he can give to the House of Lords. While Lord Kilclooney is a lot more white-haired than a few years ago, walking around Portadown - now in a DUP constituency - he is recognised by most passers-by and his title does not seem to have settled into the public consciousness.

All in all, he seems to be enjoying his change of career. He says when he sees politicians on television, he is quickly reminded of why he left the political scene.

Asked to talk about political developments, he retains a sympathy for David Trimble, but believes Sinn Féin could have done more to help him out and decommissioned earlier. He reserves his more acerbic comments for the DUP. But he appears to find politics somewhat dull. Business seems to be his new drug.

What occupies his time is the valuations of media assets in Ireland. He says his newspaper company Alpha recently refused to meet the high prices offered during the bidding process for the Impartial Reporter in Co Fermanagh, which eventually went to a Scottish company.

Lord Kilclooney says his papers are utterly independent of him. He says most of the Northern titles do not even have editorials, while his papers in the Republic have not altered any of their editorial positions since becoming part of Alpha.

As owner of most local papers in the midlands, his titles will play a key role in shaping coverage in the run-up to next year's general election. But they will pursue their role without Lord Kilclooney, who says he will have no say.

Doing business in the Republic has been a pleasure, Lord Kilclooney says, and he gets a great welcome wherever he goes in the South. And despite different political positions, he says he has always supported business links between the two jurisdictions.

Despite being a life peer in the House of Lords, Lord Kilclooney is concerned about a drop in what he calls "moral standards" in England and the Republic. "For example, when I see St Patrick's Day becoming a drunken orgy, I think this kind of thing is not good. I see people in Northern Ireland not going to Mass or Protestant people not going church. Are we going to become like the secular English? Sometimes I call them the heathen English. I don't think it's good for this island that we drift into that scenario."

He is unequivocal about his ambitions for the company: "We'd always be interested in acquiring more newspapers, of course we would. But we are not going to pay too much. If it's too expensive then we don't get involved . . . I think the prices paid last year for some of the leading weeklies in the South were far too expensive and over the top, the Leinster Leader in particular."

Lord Kilclooney says his journey into the local newspaper world has been a case of slow incremental and opportunistic growth. "Our family background is civil engineers and architects. I worked in our family consultancy firm for a time. Twenty-three years ago a local newspaper group came up for sale. I had been interested in newspapers; I worked on the student newspaper in Queens University. When this paper came up for sale, the Ulster Gazette in Armagh, I got two or three of us together as a family and we decided to buy it. It was making £2,000 profit at the time. And things have snowballed since then."

After picking up the Ulster Gazette, the Tyrone Courier - the third biggest local paper in Northern Ireland - came up for sale. "Then I got a phone call a few years later from the Outlook in Newry, asking me would I buy it. They didn't want to sell it to an English or Scottish company. I bought it.

"Then the biggest newspaper group in Northern Ireland, the Northern Newspaper Group, contacted me, saying they had an offer from an English firm, but they didn't want to sell to them. They asked would we buy. We said we would offer the same price and we bought it."

He says the "bits and pieces" of the Alpha empire have been added on over the past 23 years. Three years ago the phonecall came from Dublin when the Midland Tribune came up for sale. That gave his group four Southern titles.

"We are the biggest publisher in Northern Ireland now. We are selling 105,000 in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Telegraph is now selling 90,000, so that puts it into perspective." While excited about this, Lord Kilclooney seems even more enthused about his Southern Irish assets. "And we are now the biggest in the midlands, selling more than The Irish Times or the Irish Independent," he trumpets.

Lord Kilclooney was centrally involved in Northern politics during this period of expansion, but he insists he was not absent from the publishing fray despite distractions. "You can operate, control your time very easily. Some of these deals were done over the mobile phone - I might have been in London," he says.

He remembers an amusing incident in the run up to the Good Friday Agreement, when he had to tell British prime minister Tony Blair he needed to go out to "buy a newspaper". He returned two hours later, to Blair's puzzlement. He was not visiting the local newsagent, however, but buying the Co Down Outlook.

While ink clearly runs in the Taylor veins, Lord Kilclooney has also amassed sizeable interests in radio. Alpha is part of the Northern Media Group, which owns Six FM in east Tyrone and south Derry and a majority shareholding in Seven FM, based in Ballymena and Antrim. The consortium was recently awarded the radio licence for the Newry and Mourne area. The group also owns three stations across mid-Ulster and the northwest.

"I am working nearly full time now on the newspapers and radio," he says of his current workload. "It is most enjoyable."

Factfile

Name: Lord Kilclooney (formerly John Taylor).

Job: Chairman and largest shareholder in Alpha Newspaper Group, which owns more than 20 local newspapers North and South. Also a major shareholder in Northern Media Group, which owns several radio stations in Northern Ireland.

Age: 68.

Background: Former deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party from 1995 to 2001. Was a member of parliament for Strangford from 1983 until 2001. He was minister of state at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Northern Ireland in 1971. In 1972 an attempt was made on his life, in which he was shot in the face by an Official IRA gunman.

Interests: Soccer. He is an Arsenal supporter and watches Northern Ireland regularly in Windsor Park. Holidays regularly in northern Cyprus. Travels a lot to Muslim countries.

Why he is in the news: One of the two media companies he is involved with, Northern Media Group, has unveiled plans to employ 130 people and achieve turnover of £5-£6 million (€7.4-€9 million) over the next year.