Hugh McLaughlin (October 1918 – 1 January 2006) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. He was married to Nuala Ryan. McLaughlin was born at

Killygordan Killygordon () is a small village in the Finn Valley in the east of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. , the population was 614. It is located on the N15 between Ballybofey and Castlefin. The separate hamlet and townla ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

, the youngest child of a stationmaster. At 16, he became a barman's apprentice in Gardiner Street in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, the largest city in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In 1935 he established a tailoring business with his sister Anne Beggs. By 1950 he was involved with a

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

company called Fleet and began publishing

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s for greyhound owners. He printed ''Kavanagh's Weekly'' in 1952, which featured

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel '' Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life t ...

. Due to this success, Hugh McLaughlin decided to continue to publish indigenous Irish magazines. These would compete with British magazines. Titles included ''Creation'', which was edited by his wife Nuala, ''Woman's Way'', ''Woman's Choice'', '' Business & Finance'', ''This Week'' and ''Nikki.'' These magazines were published by his company, the Creation Group. ''Business & Finance'', still published today, is a business magazine established by McLaughlin in September 1964. He believed he could repeat in business media the success that was achieved by ''

Irish Farmers Journal The ''Irish Farmers Journal'' is a weekly newspaper (published Thursdays) which provides farming news, specialist advice, market data and country living features to the Irish agricultural industry. As of October 2019, it reportedly had a weekly ...

'', which he had played a key role in establishing. ''Business and Finance'' was initially owned equally by McLaughlin himself; Noel Speidel, a surveyor with whom he had carried out successful property developments in Dublin, and its founder editor Nicholas Leonard, who resigned as the financial editor of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' to join it. In 1965 all of McLaughlin's printing and publishing activities were combined in a new holding company called Creation Property and Printing, later changed to Creation Group. New Hibernia acquired a convertible loan interest in the company in the summer of 1965. In October 1968 the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

'' bought a majority shareholding in the Creation group. Later on the same day,

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from N ...

made a takeover bid for the British tabloid. The bid was rejected and the ''News of the World'' ended up being controlled by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. Following this the Carr family, who were previously the largest shareholders in the ''News of the World'', bought the majority holding in Creation group. In 1973 McLaughlin founded the '' Sunday World'' with his business partner Gerry McGuinness. By 1977 Creation went into liquidation, which resulted in magazine titles being sold and in 1978

Independent Newspapers Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) was a newspaper publisher in New Zealand. Started as the Wellington Publishing Company in 1906 to publish ''The Dominion'', it began taking over other newspapers in the 1970s and was renamed Independent New ...

took a 54 per cent stake in the ''Sunday World''. Hugh McLaughlin went on to establish another Sunday newspaper, the ''

Sunday Tribune The ''Sunday Tribune'' was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tab ...

'', with business partner John Mulcahy. In 1982 he unsuccessfully launched a daily newspaper, the '' Daily News''. This was to be his last publishing venture. In retirement McLaughlin invented a machine, the Water Hog, that removed water from cricket pitches and putting greens.

Notes

References

* ''Sunday Independent'' (8 Jan. 2006)
"Hugh McLaughlin"
Retrieved 15 January 2006. * "Publisher who became monarch of the magazine sector." (7 Jan. 2006). ''The Irish Times'', p 14. {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Hugh 1918 births 2006 deaths Magazine publishers (people) Irish magazine founders Irish newspaper founders People from County Donegal Sunday Tribune people