A free local newspaper, the Mayo Echo, has stopped publishing, blaming a “blacklisting” by Mayo County Council, a competitor’s “campaign to close us down” and the economy.

Talking to Blurred Keys this week, editor of the Mayo Echo, Tony Geraghty, said: “Firstly the biggest employer and advertiser in Mayo, Mayo County Council, has blacklisted our publication for a number of years now, and that has effectively denied us much needed advertising revenue.”

In breaking the stories such as the Competition Authority investigation of the waste sector privatisation in Mayo – which led to national coverage – the newspaper made few friends at Mayo County Council. In not getting council advertising, Geraghty said the council is giving other newspapers a “commercial advantage” and uses “taxpayers’ money to discourage negative press coverage.”

On competitor and the general drop in advertising, he said: “Secondly, a number of our competitors have drastically reduced their advertising rates, and thirdly the general economy has taken a severe dip in recent months, tightening up the advertising spend. As we are an independent publication, we are unable to sustain significant losses, and unfortunately were forced to take the decision to cease publication”.

In an editorial published in the last edition of the newspaper (Wednesday April 15 2009), Geraghty focused on one competitor, he said:

“…in the last number of months the Western People, owned by the Cork-based Thomas Crosbie Media conglomerate, has launched a significant campaign to close us down. It has contacted many of our advertisers calling into question our distribution figures, and has repeatedly called into question our integrity. It has effectively bullied us out of the market using tactics that can only be described as sharp practice. Given that we are a small, independently owned publication, it is almost impossible for us to withstand such an onslaught, and therefore it is with the greatest of regret that we have been forced to take the decision to cease publication.”

According to the Mayo Echo, it started out in printing 6,000 copies in 2004, growing to a total distribution of 24,100. Mayoecho.com says this was a combination of 12,200 door-to-door deliveries split between the towns of Ballina, Castlebar, Westport, and Claremorris, and a further 11,900 through shops and businesses in Mayo. The total unaudited figure is nearly 6,000 copies more than the last audited circulation for the Western People, which gave the Western a total average circulation of 18,242 (Audit Bureau of Circulations, Island of Ireland Report December 2008).

In the editorial, Geraghty also said his paper had taken the view from early on the paper would not cover “petty court cases.” Instead the Mayo Echo, the editorial said: “…took a good look at the larger institutions around us. We attempted to expose our greedy politicians, our wasteful and corrupt county council, our incredibly incompetent health service, the many tax-payer-funded local quango’s that have sprung up in recent years, and other suspicious or dangerous activity being carried out by big businesses or other local agencies.”

In doing so, the newspaper courted controversy on a number of occasions. Last year, it attracted national and local criticism for a cover story that likened homosexuals to perverts and linked gay cruising to paedophilia (‘Castlebar Lake Attracts Hundreds of Perverts’). When criticism of the article appeared on community site Castlebar.ie, Geraghty attracted further attention after he threaten the website with legal action.

In the last edition, Geraghty hinted at a possible return in “another format,” saying: “No doubt there will be many who celebrate our closure, and many who exhale a sigh of relief. I am encouraged though to hope that there will be just as many who will miss our weekly edition. You may, in the distant future, see us return in another format, but for now at least, I wish you a fond farewell.”

At the time of publication, the last edition of the Echo was still available on Mayoecho.com in PDF format. Archive issues are not online.

The Mayo newspaper landscape now includes three paid titles, the Western People, The Connaught Telegraph, and the Mayo News, and one freesheet in the Mayo Advertiser.