Michael O'Doherty (publisher)

Michael O'Doherty is the publisher of the VIP magazine group in Ireland. He also known for his joint business venture with John Ryan, New York Dog, a magazine for dog lovers. This eventually collapsed, bringing Ryan's other remaining business ventures, such as blogorrah.com down with it. Before its collapse the magazine was lauded by respected international publications such as The New York Times. Whilst O'Doherty is still involved with VIP, Ryan has attempted a different career in television and is now known for his 2009 RTÉ Two comedy television show This is Nightlive, which mimics the antics of Ireland's newscasters and other newsroom members.

Background

The idea for the magazine came from a joint business venture by Irish magazine publishers O'Doherty and Ryan. Ryan's publishing company inititally owned the publishing venture Stars on Sunday which folded with losses, whilst O'Doherty still maintained VIP. New York Dog magazine was promoted on The Late Late Show, and was set up alongside a New York City-based website, blogorrah.com, which was described by the Irish Independent as "a sort of Phoenix without portfolio". The site was edited by Derek O'Connor but mysteriously stopped filing new posts in July 2007. O'Doherty's business partnership with Ryan, led to his disappearance after the collapse of his business empire in early 2007. Ryan was declared missing after he claimed a pet-food scare led to the closure of New York Dog. Staff at Manhattan's Cinema Café, a regular haunt said: ‘He would come in here with his dog pretty regularly, but we haven’t seen him for months. The last time [we] saw him, he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders’, whilst his partner O'Connor declared that he had not spoken to Ryan since he had left New York City a few months previously and said his email address was ‘out of commission’. O'Doherty said he had not heard from Ryan for over a month. Before his disappearance Ryan had attended the Electric Picnic music festival in the company of fellow publisher Trevor White and soon after appeared as a guest on The Tubridy Show. However, a rival website then accused him of mistreating his workers and he left the country.