A new weekly newspaper is published this week in Northern Ireland, in a venture that has created 15 jobs.

The County Derry Post, edited by former Belfast Telegraph journalist Ciaran O’Neill, is the first newspaper launch in Northern Ireland by River Media, which already owns nine local papers in the Republic.

The new paper will mainly cover the rural area of County Derry, taking in the towns of Dungiven, Maghera, Magherafelt and Draperstown.

The 88-page full-colour tabloid paper will be printed at the Irish News’s state-of-the-art printing press in Belfast.

The first edition of the paper hit the streets yesterday and costs 70p.

Ciaran said: “The areas we will be covering have always had to take the crumbs off the tables of nearby cities when it comes to newspaper coverage.

“We hope to change that and will be aiming to make this as strong a community paper as possible.”