Daily Ireland gears up for February launch with subs drive

The senior editorial team for new cross-border paper The Daily Ireland started work this week as the paper began a subscription drive.

Managing director Mairtin O’Muilleoir said the £3 million Belfast-based project remains on target for a 1 February launch. This could coincide with the planned launch of a tabloid-size edition of established broadsheet evening paper The Belfast Telegraph.

O’Muilleoir said he does not see the Telegraph’s morning edition as competition because its readers would be unlikely to buy the pro-nationalist Daily Ireland.

Former Chicago Tribune editor Howard Tyner has been recruited as a consultant for the paper, which is expected to use US subscription methods.

There is a proposal for readers to pay for the paper in advance by monthly direct debit and for it to be delivered to a nearby shop.

Editor Maria McCourt and her staff were this week going through dummy designs. The team includes sports editor Paul Kelly (formerly with the News Letter ); deputy editor Colin O’Carroll (formerly news editor at Cool FM); news editor Anne Campbell (ex Irish Star ); and Derry correspondent Eamonn Houston (from the Derry Journal ). O’Muilleoir said: “We confident this will be the most striking paper on the news-shelf every morning- we will live or die by that. There will be 16 other titles on the shelves, so it’s a busy market.”