White Knight for IN&M

Well isn't it awful what Denis O'Brien has to say about Sir Anthony O'Reilly and Independent News and Media.

What a big bully he is to buy up 25% of the company(whilst ironically probably keeping share price up) and to criticize the board on corporate governance so much that he has to labelled a dissident shareholder.

What will Denis do? buy more, wait in the long grass for the septuagenarian to retire( to be taken over by junior - big change) or just keep his €300m investmet to mess with Sir Anthony's head?

With circulation falling and the London Independent STILL to make a profit where will the money come from?

Well here is the Golden Child - a certain Mr. Michael O'Leary.

For a long time now Sir Anthony has tried to equate IN&M as the Ryanair of publishers - the low cost leader in all its markets.

Well Michael O'Leary has gone one better...

Ryanair carries the Irish Independent as a luxury item(I will explain more) on its flights.
You pay to read it and it counts to the audited circulation of the newspaper.
Fair enough.

Its current newstand price is €1.80 (we'll debate the value of that another day) , however Mick charges €2.00 for the privilege of buying on Ryanair flights! Nice one!

But to go one better - Mick is obviously encouraging staff to think on their feet ; on a recent flight the steward announced the availability of said newspaper for €2.00, but when they came to sell it they charged €2.50 - a whopping 38% above retail price!
And even better - everyone paid for it!

Many would say the newspaper is dead due to the free internet - but we are obviously looking at positioning the "Indo" along the same lines as another of Sir Doctor's investments - Waterford Wedgewood - as a luxury item that we can wave at people in the concourse in Dublin Airport and tell people at our fancy soiréés at what we paid for the Irish Independent on our flight to Santa Ponza.

So build your circulation revenues Sir Anthony, offer Michael O'Leary a spot on the board(that can only upset Mr. O'Brien) and the double whammy for Michael O'Leary is he turns the position upside down to what Denis O'Brien did to him with Aer Lingus.

Oh and I hear Mullingar Angus beef is available in Irish pubs in the Canary Islands - food, media and travel - what next for Mr. O'Leary?