Independent News and Media, Ireland's biggest publishing group has announced a 4 percent increase in its operating profit in 2014 - growing to €34m. This growth has driven by increases in online revenue and tight control of the company's cost base.

INM's total revenue fell by 1.1 percent during the year to €318.7m - this was mainly due to a fall in newspaper circulation.

Advertising revenue from print advertising reduced from €73m in 2013 to €71m - this was offset as digital advertising revenue grew by 37.5 percent.

The group has invested heavily in its online platforms - INM's chief executive officer, Robert Pitt (CEO) discussed the results with Newstalk Breakfast - he says that the group has no plans to follow the Irish Times' lead by introducing an online paywall:

"We are proud of the performance of our internet sites, we have the biggest news platform in Ireland. It's growing traffic every day, every month."

He continues, "We had 12m unique users in October - we think there's a lot more potential in the market to get people to come and read the great journalism that's there."

Mr Pitt says that the focus now is to continue to grow internet traffic across the group.

INM also reduced its net debt by 6.3 percent to €89.3m during 2014.

The latest figures from the ABC audit show that INM's flagship daily publication, Irish Independent has an average circulation of 112,502 - increasing its share of the quality daily market to 50.3 percent - making it the country's most read 'quality daily.'

While the Sunday Independent remains Ireland's most popular paper, with a weekly circulation of 219,007 copies.