The National Union of Journalists has condemned the record of Trinity Mirror after the group announced it planned to sell some of its regional newspapers.

The union says the decision to sell the group's titles in the Midlands, London and the South East, following a business review, has created fear and uncertainty amongst hundreds of staff less than two weeks before Christmas.

Trinity Mirror has said it plans to focus on its national titles, and regional titles in Scotland, the North of England and Wales, and will sell its titles in other regions, including the Birmingham Post and Mail, Coventry Telegraph, South London Press, Croydon Advertiser and Surrey Mirror.

NUJ president Chris Morley, who is also a journalist at the Birmingham Mail, said: "After years of squeezing the lifeblood out of these titles, particularly in the Midlands, in the ruthless pursuit of profit, Trinity Mirror has decided to cut and run from them.

"The group's ownership has been characterised by wave after wave of redundancies in editorial staffs and cut after cut on costs at the expense of journalistic content simply to fill the shareholders' pockets ever more.

"For those titles which are now under the auctioneer's hammer, the NUJ will be demanding that any new owner is committed to investing in journalism as the way to creating a successful newspaper and online publishing business.

"The union will also continue to defend our members left in Trinity Mirror from aggressive cost-cutting which is the hallmark of Sly Bailey's management style."

A spokesman from Trinity Mirror said: "We absolutely refute these claims. We initiated the review of our businesses to determine the best way of taking the business forward.

"The review concluded that those businesses in Scotland, the North of England and Wales represent the best opportunities for growth.

"The businesses in the Midlands, South and Sports are high value assets which have seen a lot of investment from Trinity Mirror. However the review has shown that they do not fit with our strategy going forwards but they are very attractive to other owners.

"The timing of the announcement of the outcome of the review was conditioned by our trading update which was always scheduled for December.

"We recognise that staff in these businesses will feel concerned at the moment. Those concerns should not be fuelled by scare mongering from the NUJ."