Facebook and Google running ads is the defining feature of the media market this decade, with the “duopoly” entering 2019 more or less intact. It hasn’t been the greatest of timing, then, for a media company to be tied up in a corporate mess such as the one at play within Independent News & Media (INM). Elsewhere in the newspaper market, it was a year of consolidation. The Irish Times completed its purchase of the Irish Examiner, the Evening Echo, seven weekly regional titles and interests in three radio stations from Cork’s Landmark Media. The Ballymount operation rebranded to Virgin Media Television and launched Virgin Media Sport in the autumn, just ahead of TV3’s 20th anniversary.

Source: The Irish Times December 31, 2018 06:56 UTC