In 2009, the Irish Times Ltd suffered an after tax loss of €27.9m, as well as falling advertising revenues.

The financial hit was mainly due to restructuring and redundancy costs in the company, according to reports.

Figures showed that the advertising income was 42.5 percent lower due to the recession, and turnover at the company declined by 25 percent to €92m. The newspaper had an operating loss of €4.6m in 2009 compared with an operating profit of €6.4m in 2008.

Liam Kavanagh, who was appointed managing director in March 2010, commented on current trading saying, "Trading-wise, we will break even in cash terms for 2010. In profit terms, there will be a loss because of a depreciation stream."

Kavanagh estimated that the loss for 2010 would be about €8m, and said that the company would have to re-evaluate its cost-base.
"We are going to work our way through that process and identify where we can achieve savings," he said.

Further job losses and pay cuts are not being ruled out by management, who told staff that the paper would have to continue to tighten its cost base.