Under the Radar:On the day of its launch last month, the front-page story of the Monaghan Poston a judge's comments that he would blow the head off an intruder in his house was picked up by every major news organisation in the State. As newspaper launches go, it wasn't bad.

"It was a dream start," says Tim Collins, director of River Media, the company behind the new local paper. "We couldn't believe we got a coup like that. It provided a perfect front-page story."

River Media's arrival on the publishing scene has also enjoyed something of a dream start. From seemingly nowhere two years ago, the group has emerged as a serious player in the local newspaper industry.

The launch of the Monaghan Postis the latest expansion for the group which has invested some €14 million in newspapers in the past couple of years.

The company, which is backed by the Irish News, Collins and fellow investor Pádraig O'Dwyer, bought the Inish Timesin Donegal last December. The Derry Newswas also acquired last year, while the group launched four new local papers - the Leitrim Post, the Letterkenny Post, the Donegal Postand the Kildare Post.

"Local print media is a very strong market but we felt the market, on the basis of our experience, was catering mainly to an over-40 demographic," says Collins. "Newspapers were growing old and their readers were growing old with them.

"The feedback we were getting from advertisers was that the 20-40 demographic was very much under-served by the local print media across the country in some markets. So it occurred to us, particularly where there were only one or two titles, that there was an opportunity to go in with a completely different product."

Teaming up with the Irish Newsin a joint venture, River Media's first move into the market was with the Kildare Post.

"We sat down with the Irish Newsand devised a proposition which is essentially a tabloid, full colour, very high-quality local newspaper which majors in local news and local sport, but as a joint proposition that gives a very high-quality lifestyle type section. So we have got health, beauty, motoring, property, stuff that local newspapers traditionally didn't do very well."

The changing demographics in the State is also affecting the regional newspaper market, he says. Many of the people moving from urban areas, particularly Dublin, into country towns have no loyalty to the traditional local paper, leaving the door open to new rivals.

River Media's connection with the Irish Newsgoes back a long way. Collins and O'Dwyer teamed up with the Northern Irish publisher and John Taylor's Alpha Newspaper Group when they decided to bid for radio licences in Northern Ireland.

Last year, the three groups formed the Northern Media Group which now controls six radio stations in the North.

In the Republic, Collins and O'Dwyer are involved with Ocean FM in Donegal and KFM in Kildare.

Launching newspapers or radio stations doesn't come cheap. While the purchase of its first two radio stations in Northern Ireland was funded by Collins, O'Dwyer and their business partners, the more recent expansion, including the newspaper launches and purchases, has been funded by First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland.

The group has annual revenues of €10 million and Collins says all of the newspapers are profitable. A further three newspaper launches are planned for this year, although Collins says the group has identified eight areas for potential start-ups.

From past experience, he doesn't expect the incumbents to take the arrival of new entrants lying down. "We have had a fairly sharp response from a number of our competitors who have dropped their prices and are competing fairly robustly with us," he says.

"The response of our competitors must mean we are hurting people a bit, but I do believe that we are also expanding the market."

Being a newspaper group gives the River Media's papers a big advantage over many local rivals, he says. "We are taking an increasing amount of agency-type advertising as well. It is very hard if you have only one or two papers to access the agencies. They are not really interested."

On the Record

Name:Tim Collins

The Business:River Newspapers and Northern Media Group

Personal History:Born 1959. Educated at Castleknock College. Studied medicine at Trinity College and practised as a GP in Ireland and Australia. Left medicine and worked as photographer for a year. Returned to Ireland in 1989 and went to work in RTÉ presenting environment programmes.

Special adviser to Mary Harney, 1990-1992. Special adviser to Brendan Howlin (at Department of Health and then Environment), 1992-1997. Elected to Bray Council in 1994. Labour Party candidate in 1995 by-election and 1997 general election. Director of Public Affairs at Drury Communications, 1998-2004. Qualified as barrister 2005. Joint chief executive Ocean FM 2004. Founded River Newspapers and Northern Media Group with Pádraig O'Dwyer, 2005/6.

Family:Married to Dr Barbara Tucker with three sons, Daniel, Luke and Peter.

Ambition:To sail around the world with my wife (if she agrees to come!)

Most admired person:My father, an old-style physician.

Inspired by whom:My business partner, Pádraig O'Dwyer.

Favourite song:Tangled up in Blue by Bob Dylan.

Most likes to:Kick a rugby ball with my son Peter (aka Geordan Murphy).