Trinity Mirror aims for top spot with £150m plan

Trinity Mirror, Britain’s biggest newspaper publisher, is to spend £150m on developing its Internet business over the next three years.

Sixteen regional web portals – all linked to an integrated national Internet service – will be set up over the next 12 months.

Trinity Mirror chief executive Philip Graf said the move would create the UK’s “leading local portal”.

The strategy will be overseen by a new media division headed by former Virgin.Net managing director David Clarke. Its staff will grow from 100 to 250 in the next year.

The group launched its central web portal, ic24, in April last year and says the site has become one of the top five in the UK for advertising revenue. It expects to generate £7m in advertising revenue from its Internet service this year.

Trinity Mirror also has a number of regional sites based on local newspapers, as well as its Sporting Life and Racing Post sites.

The group has revealed a 14% rise in underlying profits for 1999 – from £148m to £168m before tax and exceptional items.

Trinity Mirror’s regional papers include the Western Mail, Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, Newcastle Journal, Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post and Coventry Evening Telegraph. Its national titles are The Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, Scotland’s Daily Record and Sunday Mail and Wales on Sunday.

Back to the online index

Do you have an online story for us?
E-mail us now