Publisher with consummate marketing skills

John Thompson: John Thompson, who has died aged 63, was one of the leading newspaper Irish executives of the past three decades…

John Thompson: John Thompson, who has died aged 63, was one of the leading newspaper Irish executives of the past three decades. A consummate salesman, he enjoyed considerable success at the Star and Ireland on Sunday, both of which saw their circulation rise significantly under his stewardship. He was also there in the early 1970s for the start of the Sunday World, which brought a new kind of popular journalism to a readership whose tastes were changing rapidly.

Thompson brought strategic thinking and vision to his work as a publisher, but he was also an accomplished sloganeer.

The cheeky "Are you getting it every Sunday?" for the Sunday World is one of his best-known compositions, while "Ireland's Brightest Daily" reflected the Star's status at its launch as the only full-colour newspaper on the market.

From Drumcondra in Dublin, Thompson was educated at Coláiste Mhuire and went to work for Ark Advertising after school. He moved to another advertising firm, O'Keeffes, before joining the Creation Group, where he worked with Gerry McGuinness and Hugh McLoughlin in the start of the Sunday World in 1973.

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He then joined the Smurfit Group, where he was involved in U magazine and became deputy managing director of the Irish Farmers Journal in the 1980s.

He became managing director of the Star in 1988.

Although nowadays regarded as an outstanding success, the Star had a rocky start and at one point its investors gave Thompson six weeks to turn the publication around. He slashed costs yet managed to increase circulation and his job, and the newspaper, were saved.

In 2001, he became chief executive of Associated Newspapers Ireland, where he had responsibility for Ireland on Sunday and Buy & Sell. The group diversified with the launch of the freesheet Metro, in which The Irish Times has a stake, and the Irish Daily Mail.

Golf was Thompson's main leisure interest, and he was an active member of Royal Tara and Carton House clubs. The other main focus of his life was his family; he and his wife Geraldine raised four children in their home in Castleknock. Two have followed their father into the newspaper business: Lee is managing director of Metro, while Emma is a subeditor at the Irish Daily Star.

The onset of cancer three years ago was to curtail his involvement in work and on the golf course. He enjoyed a period of remission but this proved unexpectedly short.

John Thompson: born July 24th, 1943, died October 19th, 2006