Sky News to slash Irish operations

Sky News is cutting its Irish operations to the bone, from a total of 25 staff in Belfast and Dublin, to – er – five. The two Sky News Ireland bulletins, which were getting pretty dismal ratings, will cease at the end of November. Speaking as a Belfast native myself, I suppose this is the flipside of the ‘peace dividend’. A stable Northern Ireland just isn’t news any more.

Oh – and I note that the New Statesman is also reversing its digital ambitions. Not only is it dropping the paid-for subscription model from 17 November, but it’s introducing additional free web-only content.