Telecom Eireann ordered a newspaper to pulp thousands of copies of a supplement, at a cost of up to £10,000, reprinting the edition with a more flattering picture of chief executive, Mr Alfie Kane. The incident occurred just days before the company was due to announce the winner of its high-profile Information Age Town competition, when the Sunday Tri- bune was working on a commercial supplement about the project. When the first copies came off the presses, the newspaper showed it to the company.
Industry sources said Telecom executives were deeply unhappy with a photograph of Mr Kane which they thought was "too sour", and insisted that it be changed. Even when it became clear that thousands of copies had already been printed, and that a new printrun would cost around £10,000, Telecom stopped the presses.
However the company insisted last night it had not sought the reprinting because of the picture but because it had been unhappy with the print quality.
"It wasn't driven by the picture. We were unhappy with the overall poor quality of the print. Our logos, for example, were the wrong colour. It would be ridiculous to scrap a supplement for just a picture," said Mr Gerry O'Sullivan, head of Telecom Eireann's corporate communications division. "I wasn't happy with the picture, and took advantage of the chance to change it," he added.
He insisted Mr Kane did not see the original before the newspapers carrying it were rejected. The replacement photo, on page five of the 16-page supplement, shows a smiling Mr Kane. "There was nothing whatsoever wrong with the printing," said Mr Jim Clancy, the assistant manager of Maypark Printers, who was on duty when the order came to scrap the first run. "We just got the new instructions and when we checked it the only thing that was changed was the picture of himself."