The first-day print run for the new newspaper is understood to be close to 200,000 copies, with a giveaway-price distribution blitz planned for the first week. Expect a flurry of free CDs, DVDs, competitions and promotions over the coming months. This launch means newspaper war.

Associated Newspapers sells only about 10,000 copies of the Daily Mail in the Republic, and it is believed that the group would be happy in the short term to get the Irish Daily Mail's circulation to 40,000. Pundits' estimates of achievable circulation range from 20,000 upward.

These numbers may look modest, but the launch of the staunchly mid-market Mail is being seen as a tilt at Independent News & Media's dominant position in the market.

With no immediate plans to sell Irish advertising in the Irish Daily Mail, all efforts will be focused on building circulation. The mid-market Irish Independent, which sells an average 170,000 copies every day, is an obvious target.

To a lesser extent, the Mail will have a crack at The Examiner, and has recruited a fulltime Cork correspondent.

The newspaper will also be hoping to swipe readers from the red-tops, particularly from the Irish Daily Star.

The Irish Timesmay not be entirely immune either. The young, middle-class urban female reader has been more traditionally the territory of that newspaper than of the Irish Independent, whose heartland is rural, over 45 and male.

There are other possibilities. It is understood that the hope is that the Irish Daily Mail will be bought as a second newspaper alongside a national broadsheet, as happens with the Daily Mail in Britain. Associated Newspapers will also try to create a new market of readers. But the central battle will be to win over fickle potential switchers.

"I can see the Mail's circulation at around the 30,000 mark, and I don't think they will be extra purchasers, " Joe Dalton, media director at advertising agency AFA O'Meara, suggested . "I think they will come from somewhere else."

One key potential audience is the female Irish newspaper reader. The Mail has built its position in Britain through precision targeting of female readers. Top dog at the new Irish paper is Ted Verity, editor in chief of Ireland on Sunday, whose past successes within Associated Newspapers included working on its Femail supplement.

A chunk of the femalefocused content will be Irish, with columnists Brenda Power, Mary Ellen Synon and Mary Carr on board.

High-profile Daily Mail columnists including Melanie Phillips will also be fixtures, and readers can expect the full complement of beauty, lifestyle and calculatedly terrifying health features from the British edition.

To seduce male sports readers, a few strong Irish angles are being thrown in.

Ireland on Sunday columnist Donal Keenan will write on Gaelic Games, and former Dublin GAA star Barney Rock will write a column every Monday.

Overall, Irish content is expected to range from 30% of the paper to 70% or more.

The paper has swiped religious affairs correspondent David Quinn from the Irish Independent. Philip Molloy, formerly executive editor of news at the Irish Independent, has also signed up. Ireland on Sunday editor Paul Drury is also on the top team.

Media competitors expect a compelling package, but floating voters are still more likely to be convinced if the price and the giveaways are right. The Mail currently sells in Ireland at 75c on weekdays and 1 on Sunday. Even after the initial price offensive, it is understood that the new daily newspaper may still be cheaper.

Industry sources believe that the Irish Independent is extremely unlikely to enter into a price war. But Independent News & Media has been girding its loins for the new arrival, with a doublepronged rearguard action gathering pace over the past year.

The lay-out of the Irish Independent has been smartened up to give the paper a fresher feel, and a tabloid edition was launched to win more city readers.

In a bid to match the Mail for attitude, the Irish Independent has been touting new columnists David McWilliams and Martina Devlin with unprecedented front-page enthusiasm.

"We want to retain the readers we have, who are representative of modern Ireland, a cross-section of Ireland, " said Vincent Crowley, chief executive of Independent's Irish operations.

At the same time, he noted that the way the Irish Independent product has developed recently is "more in tune with the pulse of modern Ireland".

There have been predictions that the arrival of the Mail may prompt the Independent to make a call on its future format, but Crowley rejected suggestions that having to deal with the compact and broadsheet formats could prove a distraction.

The heavy promotional artillery for both the Irish Independent and the Irish Daily Star will be rolled out from this week, with a mix of intense advertising and promotional offers in the offing.

Some of the promotional activity will be more the same, but some will be completely new for Independent, according to Crowley. "This will an ongoing joust."

In advertising and media circles, some argue that Associated Newspapers is throwing reason out of the window in pumping what must now be approaching 100m into loss-making Irish titles.

Others argue that it is not that simple.

There are synergies to be had. The Irish edition of the Daily Mail is already printed in Ireland and staff are already in place at Ireland on Sunday and Metro, the morning free-sheet launched in Dublin in October. There are also circulation figures to be boosted at a time when the British market has stopped growing.

And then there is the longterm view. Associated Newspapers, as its rivals are well aware, has deep pockets and considerable patience. It took 10 years before the now stonkingly successful Mail on Sunday turned a profit in Britain for the first time.

"Quite optimistic" is the position Paul Drury claims for the Irish Daily Mail. "We believe there is a long, hard road ahead, but we are confident we can make significant inroads."