Celtic Media Group (CMG) already owns six titles including the Meath Chronicle, the Offaly Independent, the Anglo-Celt and the Connaught Telegraph. It also provides pre-press services to a number of other titles.
The group is headed by Frank Mulrennan, a former business editor with the Irish Independent.
In 2008, a deal was reached to sell the Tuam Herald to Northern Ireland’s Alpha Media Group, the company that is partially owned by Unionist politician John Taylor, now Lord Kilclooney.
That reportedly valued the Tuam Herald at between €6m and €10m. But company filings show that Alpha Media paid just over €1m in 2009 for shares in the firm behind the Tuam Herald, with David and Mary Burke retaining holdings in the business. By late 2021, sole ownership had reverted to them.
The Tuam Herald has been a CMG client for a number of years, with CMG providing it with graphic design and digital services, as well as management consultancy.
The company behind the Tuam Herald posted an €81,000 loss last year, its accounts show. It had shareholder funds of €483,000 at the end of 2024.
Mr Burke said that Celtic Media Group has more than 400,000 social media followers and the scale and digital expertise to grow the Tuam Herald brand.
Mr Burke said he and his fellow director “wished to exit the business, having gone far beyond normal retirement age”.
“Our family has had a very proud stewardship of The Tuam Herald, with three generations of the Burke family responsible for managing the title for almost a century and I was very proud to have taken on the baton from my father, Jarlath,” he said.
“The time has now come to hand over to a company which can best position the title for the challenges and opportunities to come,” Mr Burke added.
The 12 staff at the Tuam Herald will transfer to CMG once the deal has been completed, likely early in the new year.
Because it’s a takeover in the media sector, the sale requires the approval from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, as well as the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport.
Celtic Media Group is owned and managed by its Irish management team – following a management buyout of the company in June 2012 for a reported €5.5m.
source