MEDIA group Archant, which publishes the Evening Star, is backing a new mid-market daily tabloid newspaper in Dublin, due to launch next spring. The management team behind the new title – called Dublin Daily – has this week finalised its €4 million (£2.56 million) launch funding package.

MEDIA group Archant, which publishes the Evening Star, is providing equity funding for the launch of a new mid-market daily tabloid newspaper in Dublin, due to launch next spring.

The management team behind the new title – called Dublin Daily – has this week finalised its €4 million (£2.56 million) launch funding package.

Archant will be the single largest shareholder, with a total investment of €1.5 million (around £1 million) and a 20% stake.

The title will be the first new daily newspaper launched in the city for a generation and is aimed at filling a gap in the market, with Dublin being the only European capital without its own dedicated daily.

The new paper will focus on Dublin news, issues, entertainment and sport. It will be metropolitan in flavour, designed to appeal equally to women and men.

It will be a 64-page paid-for colour tabloid and the target circulation after two years is 33,000. The company will have 40 staff at launch and has started recruiting.

The editor will be former gaelic football star Liam Hayes, who was founding editor of the Ireland on Sunday newspaper.

Like other members of the management, he previously worked at Digiserve, the Irish web-based information provider behind the Ireland Online service, which is also a shareholder in the venture.

Colm Grealy, chief executive officer of operating company Dublin Daily News Ltd, will also leave Digiserve to run the new venture.

The chairman is entrepreneur Paschal Taggart, the former chairman of Ireland on Sunday, whose interests include a variety of advertising and technology companies.

Archant chief executive John Fry said: "This is an important step for Archant. 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.

"Dublin Daily is an attractive product, driven by a visionary and committed management team and produced on state-of-the-art technology that brings the cost efficiencies of internet publishing to newspapers."

Archant recently secured approval from its shareholders to increase its borrowing limit to £270 million, a move that allows it to move quickly when investment opportunities arise.