ABSTRACT
Around 2008, the Republic of Ireland's local newspaper industry saw an unprecedented boom veer to a calamitous bust. In the post-crash years, the industry showed few signs of recovery, and since 2020 it has been further scarred by the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic. In both configurations, consolidation prioritised local news as a traded informational commodity above a community public good, with audiences more forcibly positioned as consumers. Industry representative groups and journalists have been vocal in highlighting the crisis facing the country's local press. Constrained within statutory remits, regulatory actors vaguely defined and de-emphasised local news's community importance when evaluating the proposed mergers. Media mergers in Ireland fall under the purview of the Competition Act 2002. The Act sets out the responsibilities of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to examine proposed media mergers to determine whether a deal would significantly reduce market competition.
