Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN HAS resigned as the editor of the Irish Times.
He will be replaced with immediate effect by his deputy Paul O’Neill.
The surprise announcement was made this afternoon to the newsroom.
O’Sullivan, 57, will now become the newspaper’s Environment, Agriculture and Science editor.
He was appointed editor in 2011, replacing Geraldine Kennedy following her retirement.
He joined the Irish Times in 1997 and has held a number of editorial positions, as well as serving as the environmental and food science correspondent. He had been news editor under Kennedy since 2006.
According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the Irish Times sold an average of 79,427 copies (in print and the ePaper) in the last six months of 2016. This constituted a drop of 2.6% on the year previous.
O’Sullivan oversaw the introduction of a paywall on the company’s online news services. In February, it reported an online, paying customer base of 55,724.
In a statement today, he said his six-year term coincided with “unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty for media businesses”.
“I would like to pay particular tribute to all on the editorial team,” he continued. “In an unrelenting challenging period, they ensured a consistent output of public-interest journalism and content that informed and enriched the lives of a growing number of readers.”
New appointment
Dan Flinter, chairman of the Irish Times’ board, announced the appointment of O’Neill to the top job.
He described his career thus far as “long and distinguished”, noting that the 52-year-old joined the newspaper in 1989 as London Correspondent.
He has also served as a news reporter, crime correspondent, deputy news editor and business desk editor. He became Finance Editor in 2000 before leaving journalism to take up a role in PR.
A short time later, he returned to the Irish Times as deputy editor. In 2011, he was made Editorial Director responsible for “operations across print and digital content”. He returned to his deputy editorship in September 2015.
According to Flinter, O’Neill has “been central to all editorial developments” since then.
Wishing him luck in the new role, he added: “In making the appointment, the board was very pleased to have a candidate with an evident strong track record and experience, who has the necessary leadership skills and talent for the role and who has the ability to build on the current momentum of change within the organisation”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Well done on completing the film. Will seek it out.
The unfortunate thing is, politicians only pretend to care what people think at one time. Election time. The rest of the time, people are an annoyance to be kept at a distance. They have police keeping the public well away from the public servants and a media to keep them dumb. No amount of protest was going to stop that, or any other war. As long as there’s profit to be made, the march of war will continue.
It didn’t make a blind bit of difference which shows that it is a mirage of democKracy that those who we ‘elect’ to be in charge or ‘represent’ our view are not in charge at all. It is the military-industrial might that is and it doesn’t give a tinker’s curse about civilisation.
That was the first protest I took any of my children. It felt like a special day. If it didn’t stop the war, it did help people understand that public mobilisation in large scale is possible, and it helped unmask the true interests of politicians, which are not the same as the public’s.
It’s people like this that allow groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda to grow with their attitudes of appeasement.
More like a continuous cosying up to the wrong type of dictator, interfering in internal conflict and arming the wrong sides, making ‘Hitlers’ out of local bullies and waging illegitimate wars and continuously bombing a region for it’s natural resources facilitates organisations like ISIS or Al Qaeda to warp alienated and confused people into committing atrocities.
Anti-War = Pro-ISIS ?? Good one Darryl..
Nah, I prefer to remember staying up all night watching shock & awe rock Baghdad. Nothing special about a bunch of crusties and easily swayed people gathering in one large group.
have your say