The
first new daily newspaper launched in Ireland since 1931 is to hit
newsstands on Tuesday with the launch of the Belfast-based Daily
Ireland.
The cross-border pro-nationalist paper has a target circulation of 20,000 a day and will run to 52 pages.
Managing
director Mairtin O’Muilleoir said: “It’s going to be very dynamic, it’s
going to wear its heart on its sleeve, it’s going to be very strong on
design and presentation and it’s going to give a voice to a
constituency in Ireland not represented in the daily media, which is
the very strong united Ireland constituency.”
The Daily Ireland
will concentrate on covering Northern Ireland and the counties of
Ulster outside the UK, although it will be available for sale across
the south.
The paper has a staff of 30, of which around 25 are
journalists, based in the offices of the Andersonstown News Group –
which also publishes several weekly papers.
O’Muilleoir said he
will press on with controversial plans to obtain public funding for the
paper, despite criticism from rival newspapers.
He argued that
Daily Ireland is situated within a Government-designated area of need
and that it will deliver £750,000 in tax revenues and saved dole
pay-outs in its first year.
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