Irish Times sells 'Irish Field' to 'Farmers Journal' publisher for €2.5m

The weekly bloodstock and racing industry paper, the Irish Field, is to be sold to the Agricultural Trust, publisher of the Farmers Journal, for approximately €2.5 million.

The publication has been part of The Irish Times since the 1930s but, following a strategic review, the company has decided it no longer represents a core activity. The company was now concentrating on its core activities, said managing director Ms Maeve Donovan, and they were newspaper publishing and contract printing.

The paper will continue to be published by The Irish Times for another three months before transferring ownership.

The 12 Irish Field employees are staff of The Irish Times and their future employment and conditions will be dealt with under in-house consultative arrangements set up in recent years.

Mr Matt Dempsey, editor and managing director of the Farmers Journal, said the title was widely respected in the bloodstock industry and he believed this would continue.

He said the Irish bloodstock industry was world class and the Irish Field would continue to reflect this.

He added that the Farmers Journal and the Irish Field were very distinct brands and the Agricultural Trust had no plans to merge them.

Ms Donovan said The Irish Times Ltd was very pleased with the sale and that the Agricultural Trust was the appropriate purchaser.

She said The Irish Times had also agreed a printing contract with the Agricultural Trust to print the Irish Field for two years at its state-of-the-art Citywest printing operation.

Reacting to the sale, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Seamus Dooley, welcomed the fact that the newspaper had been acquired by an indigenous newspaper trust.

He said that management at The Irish Times had assured the NUJ chapel that there would be no redundancies as a result of the sale and that Irish Field journalists would have the option of remaining with The Irish Times or applying for an agreed severance package.