Dublin-born O’Reilly retired last month after nearly two decades as Heinz’s chairman and now is focusing much of his energy on his personal investments, which include Independent News & Media, a chain of 160 newspapers worldwide, and the crystal and china manufacturer Waterford Wedgwood. The news venture may prove especially interesting. The Irish media conglomerate has radio, pay-per-view television and Internet properties, but O’Reilly, who recently spent E60 million ($53 million) on a new, state-of-the-art, full-color printing plant, believes that old-fashioned paper and ink are here to stay. “We’ve clearly made a pretty big bet on print media,” O’Reilly said in a telephone interview from Sydney, where he was taking in the Olympic Games. “We think the browser of choice in the future will continue to be a newspaper and a cup of coffee.”
