The new newspaper, which is described as a quality compact rather than a tabloid, is due to appear in November and will be published by Andersonstown News, a newspaper group based in Belfast.
The group, which publishes titles including the North Belfast News, South Belfast News and Irish-language daily Lá, has been researching the launch since 2002. It has found that although the market in Dublin is daunting for any new launches because it already has a number of high-quality dailies, there is a gap for a paper in the north that is "green" in its politics.
However, there is as yet no name after Murdoch stopped the use of the Today moniker. Murdoch's News International owns the trademark in the UK and Ireland for the Today name. The paper was closed in the UK in 1995.
The new newspaper will have to contend with rock-like loyalty to existing titles among readers, with people more likely to get divorced than they are to switch newspapers.
Mairtin O'Muilleoir, managing director of Andersonstown News Group and a former Sinn Fein councillor, said that the title would be young in its approach, although it will not exclusively target the youth market.
He said: "Our market research, analysis and surveying show that there exists a real window of opportunity for the provision of a strongly pro-nationalist newspaper."
With adspend in newspapers in Northern Ireland standing at £70m, O'Muilleoir said that the newspaper would only have to take a small slice of the advertising pie to succeed. The launch will create more than 40 new jobs in Belfast.
The plan for a nationalist newspaper comes following gains made by Sinn Fein at last year's assembly elections and this month's European elections. The party will now be represented in the European Parliament for the first time after winning seats on both sides of the border.
However, the newspaper had a setback last week after News International went to the High Court in Dublin to prevent it from using the title Ireland Today, which it owns the copyright to even though it does not use the title.
"This case was unprecedented since no media company has ever taken a copyright case over a name which they don't use on any publication, but we're now over the first of what will be many bumps in the road and on course for our end-of-year launch," O'Muilleoir said.
The new working title is set to be unveiled at a community launch for the title on July 7.
The original Today was launched by Eddie Shah, a printer turned proprietor, in the late 1980s and with it came the promise of new technology, satellite printing and on-the-run colour that would create a revolution for readers and advertisers.
The paper lurched from crisis to crisis and editor to editor before it was sold by Lonrho in 1987 to Murdoch.
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