KIERAN McGEARY, chief executive of Beat FM, the regional radio station in the southeast, has been recruited by UTV to head up its local radio operations in Cork. The Belfast broadcaster has two licences in the “Rebel County”, 96FM and 103FM.

McGeary was at the helm of Beat when it was launched three years ago and the station is now close to break-even. It has a market share of 8.2% and a “listened to yesterday” figure of 17%. Although he is leaving the hot seat, McGeary will remain as a shareholder.

He worked as a journalist with the BBC in Britain and was managing director of 107.7 The Wolf, a local radio station in Wolverhampton that, coincidentally, was acquired by UTV last year when it bought The Wireless Group for £98m.

He replaces Ronan McManamy, who was appointed earlier this year by UTV to manage its portfolio of radio assets in the republic, where it has five licences. McGeary makes the switch at the beginning of November.

From dogs to blogs

Building an online publishing empire is the latest goal of John Ryan, the Irish publisher of niche American magazines New York Dog and Hollywood Dog, and formerly of VIP magazine.

He hopes to emulate the success of US-based Nick Denton, the owner of Gawker Media, which garners millions of dollars annually from advertising sales on its 15 acerbic news blogs, the best-known of which are Gawker.com and Defamer.com. “The beauty of it is that there are very few overheads,” Ryan said. “I believe there is a lot of money to be made.”

The first of Ryan’s new online publications, Blogorrah.com, offers commentary and gossip on Irish media, culture and current affairs. It was soft-launched in April and is getting 25,000 hits a day, a figure Ryan hopes will soon increase to 100,000.

The publisher plans to sell advertising on the site from September, along with rolling out another gossip site and TheBarefootFan, a sports site. Ryan is also expanding his existing business and plans to launch Miami Dog and Chicago Dog in the next six to 12 months.

The Dubliner profits in style

The Dubliner continues to turn a profit. Latest accounts for the lifestyle magazine show it made a profit of €82,837 in 2005. While down from the €125,806 recorded a year earlier, editor and founder Trevor White said it reflects the fact that he paid himself a salary for the first time and a sharp rise in administrative costs. The magazine’s wage bill for the year rose by €24,000 to €154,366, while remuneration for its directors was up by 17.6% to €29,400.

This is the third successive year of profits for a magazine that was launched in early 2001. Its accumulated losses have been reduced to €46,457 from €129,294 a year earlier.

“We’re always going to be a niche title, so we’re delighted we made as much money as we have,” White said.

Turnover rose by 2.4% to €646,328 while administrative costs rose by 14.5% to €268,401. The magazine’s circulation has risen over the past year from more than 8,500 copies per issue to 10,251 in the latest figures produced by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Many of these are given away free and White is hoping to achieve more paid-for sales in the coming year. Its annual restaurant guide continues to be popular, with about 14,500 copies sold in 2005, matching the sales in the previous year. The 2006 edition is due for publication in early November.

TV3 to sell living space

TV3’s advertising sales house is expected to sell ads in the Irish market on behalf of Living TV, a UK entertainment channel that is carried as part of NTL’s basic package of analogue channels and on all digital platforms.

CanWest Ireland Sales is believed to be in talks with Interactive Digital Sales (IDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Flextech Television, Living’s parent group, with a view to concluding a deal to sell airtime for the station. Viacom is also believed to have tendered for the contract.

The Irish broadcaster, which is set to be acquired by Doughty Hanson for €265m, has long been keen to expand the activities of CanWest Ireland Sales, which sells airtime on behalf of the channel. This contract could be the first of many in television and the wider media.

Living TV, which pitches itself at a young, female audience, is the latest overseas channel to offer opt-out ads in the Irish market. Its programmes include Will & Grace, Charmed and CSI.

Saucy ads for children

Dolmio is putting €1m into an advertising campaign for a new range of pasta and sauces targeted at children. The campaign features television ads that began airing last week on RTE, TV3, Sky, E4 and Paramount. Cinema ads will also be run in conjunction with family films until mid-September, while an outdoor campaign, in-store activity and direct mail initiatives are also planned.

The TV commercial features the puppet characters Nick and Nina.

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ciaran.hancock@sunday-times.ie