Novel might need to be developed by Frenchman from The Irish Times, for example (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
news item
'example' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'novel might need to be developed by frenchman from the irish times' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'novel' could be 'new' ('new' can be a synonym of 'novel') and 'new' is located in the answer.
'be' could be 'sit' (sitting is a kind of being) and 'sit' is present in the answer.
'frenchman' could be 'm' (abbreviation for Monsieur - like 'Mr') and 'm' is found within the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for news item that I've seen before include "Piece of topical information" , "Piece of information in paper etc" , "Piece of important information" .)