The biggest selling Irish community newspaper in Britain, the Irish Post, is understood to have gone into liquidation.
Established in 1970 by Clare-born journalist Breandán Mac Lua and accountant Tony Beatty, the Irish Post employs 10 full-time employees.
Berkshire-based FPM Accountants has been appointed liquidator to the newspaper by owner Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) and the final edition was published earlier this week.
The newspaper's mixture of national stories and community news was considered critical in giving the Irish in Britain a voice and also helped to forge a sense of collective identity.
The Irish Post, which was published on a weekly basis, was popular in areas of Britain with large Irish populations such as London, Manchester and Birmingham. The paper traditionally received a major proportion of its advertising from Irish-based companies. Its main rival was the Irish World.
The newspaper was acquired by Thomas Crosbie Holdings, publisher of The Examiner and The Sunday Business Post, in 2003 for £1.7 million sterling from Jefferson Smurfit.
It had an ABC audited circulation of over 31,400 copies at the time it was acquired by TCH but that had fallen to 21,794 by the end of 2008 and is now at about 17,100.
Dan Linehan, chief executive of regional newspapers at TCH said the decision to close the newspaper was taken as a result of the severe economic downturn and significantly reduced advertising revenues.
"I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and commitment of the staff at the Irish Post. They have been part of our Group for 8 years and they have tried very hard to make the newspaper work. Regrettably, persistent trading losses and the current economic climate have made the title unsustainable," he said.
Cork-based TCH reported operating losses of €2.95 million for 2009 last November, and said it expected to be loss-making in fiscal 2010.
Last year TCH sought two rounds of pay cuts at the Sunday Business Post while Irish Examiner and Evening Echo staff were told they faced a 10 per cent reduction in pay and a cut of as much as 50 per cent in their pensions as a result of a €20 million deficit in the company's defined benefit pension scheme.
Killarney newspaper The Kingdom, which was also owned by TCH, closed down earlier this year with the loss of 11 jobs.
Newspaper readership in Ireland declined by 3.1 per cent year on year, according to figures published by the Joint National Readership Survey earlier this month.
The Examiner saw its average readership fall by 17.16 per cent, or 35,000 a day, to 169,000 while the Sunday Business Post recorded the biggest readership decline among Sunday titles with its readership falling by 29,000 a week, or 15 per cent, to 164,000.
