Norah Casey recognised by magazine industry

Publisher and broadcaster Norah Casey has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by her peers in the magazine industry.

The owner of Harmonia, the company behind Irish Tatler, U magazine and Food & Wine Magazine, said she was honoured to receive the award from the trade body Magazines Ireland and that she still remembers "leaping into the air" when she bought Harmonia in 2004.

Ms Casey, a former Dragon on RTÉ's Dragon's Den, urged magazine publishers not to waste time "obsessing about digital" and recognise the value of the print magazine medium.

“We are still lucky that people are prepared to put money on a counter and buy a beautiful magazine,” she said. “For me, we have the most beautiful medium of all the mediums.”

The businesswoman, who presents Sunday morning show MindFeed on Newstalk and The Takeover on RTÉ Two, stepped down as chief executive of Harmonia late last year to concentrate on her broadcasting career and other activities. The company is now run by Ciaran Casey, her brother.

“I work in so many different places and I have so many different bosses you wouldn’t believe it, but when I walk into Harmonia, it’s like going home,” she said.

Ms Casey's semi-autobiographical self-help book Spark! will be released by Penguin later this year. The book will detail how she took stock of her life and began "a journey of self-discovery" following the death of her husband Richard Hannaford in 2011.