Mr. Harry Browne:

I had left The Irish Timesand was working as an academic by the time those purchases occurred. As I indicated in my opening statement, that signalled that this would be the core business. To some extent, that is not unreasonable as a suggestion. The main revenue source for newspapers up until very recently has been advertising, and within the advertising spend, approximately two thirds was from recruitment and property. They were roughly equally balanced, as I understand it. It was clear that by 2005 or 2006, newspapers were having trouble getting into this new online area. The Competition Authority had no problem with The Irish Timestaking myhome.ieas there was no competition issue because the newspaper had failed to bring its role of advertising property through print into the online sphere. In effect, the signal was just an amplification of the signal from a 48-page property supplement, which was in evidence since the late 1990s. That is fundamental to how those newspapers survive economically.