ireland.com relaunches

ireland.com, The Irish Times website, has undergone a dramatic redesign and its breaking news service has become freely available, sharpening even further the site's competitive edge. To position the company for future growth and strengthen its business, a range of enhanced features and new technology has been introduced.

The moves are aimed at enhancing its current subscribers' experience and significantly boosting its non-subscriber readership and follow extensive market analysis and customer research.

"We wish to engage a wider audience in order to continue to deliver a top quality product to our subscribers. Subscribers pay from approximately €1.50 a week for access to The Irish Times and an article archive stretching back over ten years. It represents exceptional value", said Una O'Hare, General Manager of ireland.com. To increase the value placed on its online content and to ensure the company was not dependent solely on advertising revenue as a business model. A subscription model was introduced in 2002. The move was a success and ireland.com's Premium Content continues to be the company's largest revenue stream.

ireland.com will now be positioned correctly in order to capitalise on the significant growth which is predicted over the next two years in the online advertising market. Innovations such as ireland.com TV, which will allow users to watch the latest international news on the site, will provide advertisers with more exciting ways to engage with the online audience.

"With good industry growth expectations, we expect advertising revenues for ireland.com to grow healthily on the back of the developing online display and classified markets," O'Hare said. "Moreover, The Irish Times Group's recent expansion of its online portfolio presents ireland.com with great short-term and strategic opportunities."

These initiatives, with redesigned technology, features and content, are set to confirm ireland.com as Ireland's daily leading quality news and information website.

For more information contact
Lynne Henderson, Sales and Marketing Manager ireland.com
+353 1 472 7126
lhenderson@irish-times.com

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