Message from the Editor: Why, in journalism, less is more

Over the past two years we did something that, in this age of news abundance, might seem counter-intuitive: we cut to the number of stories we publish on The Irish Times website and app each day. We still publish a large volume – at any given moment, hundreds of articles are moving through our system – but it’s fewer than it was. We did this because we wanted a greater focus on quality over quantity.

The type of story we stopped publishing tended to be generic or lower-value. It served little public service function and was probably available elsewhere on the internet. Our journalists now spend more time writing, editing, illustrating and enhancing the richer, exclusive, original material we know you want to read. And by reducing the overall story count, we have decluttered our homepages to make it easier for you to find our best work. That means faster, more accurate breaking news, original “scoops”, authoritative analysis, in-depth reporting, and the best interviews and cultural criticism.

It was gratifying, then, to see so much of that work represented in the shortlist of entries for the Irish Journalism Awards; the shortlists were published this week. In all The Irish Times had 42 nominations, spread across many categories, including News Reporter, Investigations, Business Journalist, Columnist, Crime Journalist, Political Journalist, Best Magazine, Young Journalist, Best Podcast, Foreign Reporting, Arts & Criticism, Best Front Page, Sportswriter and Best Video Journalism.

The shortlisted entries include some strong exclusives, among them:

David McCullagh: ‘There’s plenty of people in the long grass hoping I’ll fall flat on my face’

‘Almost like a tsunami now’: Irish language draws younger voters to Catherine Connolly

Enoch Burke confronts Catherine Connolly, Seán Gallagher backs Heather Humphreys campaign

– Arthur Beesley’s story of how the Government’s ‘golden visa’ scheme was shut down after officials warned of potentially unlawful and ethical practices;

– Niamh Towey’s revelation that one of Ireland’s largest estate agents offered a buyer a “split” sale so that a home could qualify for the Help to Buy scheme;

– Joe Brennan’s scoop on a takeover bid for Kenmare Resources;

– Ellen Coyne on how the treatment of seriously ill Gazan children in Ireland had stalled over visa concerns;

– Conor Lally’s exclusive on the arrest of an Oireachtas member about an alleged €150,000 business fraud

– Jack Power on Big Pharma’s behind-the-scenes lobbying of Irish authorities as it pushed back on EU reforms of the sector.

Freelance journalist Ken Foxe is deservedly shortlisted for his work for The Irish Times, including for his story of the infamous Leinster House bike shed.

The shortlist showcases some of our strongest writing. Among Kitty Holland’s nominated work is her portrait of a makeshift homeless community under Dublin’s M50. Miriam Lord is cited for her powerful reports about three shocking court cases.

We have put a big focus on our investigative work in recent times, and we have plans for further expansion in that area. In the Investigative Journalism category, Mark Paul is nominated for his work on Derek Quinlan, one of the leading property tycoons before the 2008 crash. After winning a court order in London, The Irish Times gained access to Quinlan’s bankruptcy files, and Mark was able to show how Quinlan paid a €2.5 million tax rebate that he received from Revenue in 2018 to his wife to fund their future lifestyle – one detail that played a key part in the trustees of his case seeking a court extension of his bankruptcy.

Four of our journalists – Olivia Kelly, Colm Keena, Ronan McGreevy and Jack White – were involved in a major project on dereliction in Dublin – the subject of our second nomination under Investigative Journalism. This multimedia initiative, combining shoe leather- and records-based journalism with video and graphics, took a close look at 20 derelict buildings in Dublin and the reasons they lie empty. The question it sought to answer was this: Why, in the middle of a housing crisis, are there so many vacant properties in the capital?

The Irish Times has the biggest network of foreign correspondents of any Irish media outlet. Our World coverage is a core part of our service – one we invest heavily in maintaining and developing. I was glad to see us well represented in the Foreign Reporting category, where Keith Duggan, Sally Hayden, Lara Marlowe, Hannah McCarthy and the team of Patrick Freyne and Chris Maddaloni are nominated for work from the US, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine, Israel, Ethiopia and Chad.

In several other categories The Irish Times has multiple shortlisted journalists. Writers Fintan O’Toole, Justine McCarthy, Róisín Ingle and Mark O’Connell are nominated for Best Columnist. Their shortlisted work ranges from the polemical to the personal, covering everything from the horrors in Gaza or Ireland’s place as “the Artful Dodgers of the globalised world” to the shock of a cancer diagnosis and what Michael O’Leary doesn’t know about running a country.

In Arts Journalism, where we have five of the six nominations, shortlisted work includes an examination of the problem with arts funding in Northern Ireland by Freya McClements, Martin Doyle’s interview with Sally Rooney, a Rosita Boland essay on Alice Munro, a deep-dive into the Abbey Theatre’s governance controversy by Deirdre Falvey; and Philip Watson’s interview with the jazz pianist Jim Doherty.

In the Feature Writing category, Laura Slattery is nominated for a fine piece on the hidden crisis of gambling addiction among under-18s, among other pieces, while Sally Hayden’s nominated work includes her long read on demining in Syria.

Four of our sportswriters are nominated for their work. It’s well worth revisiting these interviews with Meath footballer Cillian O’Sullivan (Malachy Clerkin), boxer Amy Broadhurst (Gordon Manning), jockey Wesley Joyce (Denis Walsh) and cyclist Stephen Roche (Ian O’Riordan).

We recently merged our Photographic Desk and our Video Department into a new Visual Media Unit, and video now occupies a central role in all kinds of stories. Four of our journalists – Enda O’Dowd, Bryan O’Brien, Chris Maddaloni and Ronan McGreevy – are shortlisted for their video work.

It’s also good to see two of our journalists – Niamh Browne and Ruby Eastwood – named in the Young Journalist category.

Finally, our Saturday Magazine is named in the Best Magazine category; Inside Politics is among the nominees for Best Podcast, our front page on the day after Pope Francis’s death is shortlisted for Best Front Page; and our Audience Unit’s work on participative journalism – using technology to help us reflect the experiences of our readers in our stories – is shortlisted in the Digital Innovation category.

Behind each shortlisted story is a big team of people – the desk editors who commissioned it, the copy-editors who corrected and beautified it, the print team members who showcased it, the editors who fended off legal threats, and the audience specialists who helped it reach you. And there are many more. Awards are welcome recognition for all of them.

You can read more about the awards, and view the shortlisted work, at irishjournalismawards.ie

Feel free to get in touch with any observations, suggestions or story tips at feedback@irishtimes.com.

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

Editor