The mid-market daily tabloid newspaper will have a €4m (£2.6m) launch fund, €1.5m of which has been provided by UK regional newspaper firm Archant, which owns the Eastern Daily Press and the Hampstead & Highgate Express among a portfolio of 57 weekly paid-for and free newspapers and around 50 specialist, county and contract magazines.
Dublin Daily will be Dublin's first daily newspaper since the Dublin Evening Mail closed in 1962. It aims to fill a gap in the market, which currently marks Dublin out as the only European capital without its own city-wide daily.
The paper will be edited by Liam Hayes, founding editor of the Associated Newspapers-owned Ireland on Sunday, and will have a launch staff of 40. Its closest rival for Dublin readers will be the mid-market evening tabloid the Evening Herald, published by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent Newspapers, which has a national circulation of 104,985.
"The rationale for the launch of Dublin Daily is very clear when you consider that this is the only capital city in Europe without its own daily newspaper. Coupled with a demographic that has changed radically over the past two decades in particular, it makes absolute sense to target Dublin as a city," Hayes said.
The 64-page paid-for colour tabloid paper, which has a target circulation of 33,000 after two years, will focus on Dublin news, issues, entertainment and sport. It will be metropolitan in flavour, designed to appeal equally to women and men.
Archant chief executive John Fry said: "It is our first involvement in Ireland and it is a market that we have been looking at for some time. We believe Dublin offers interesting opportunities that fit well with our plans to develop our community-based publishing interests."
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