History

Trinity Mirror was born out of the merger of two highly successful newspaper companies in September 1999 - Trinity plc and Mirror Group plc.

With five national and over 120 regional newspapers and more than 400 digital products, the Group reaches over 40% of the UK population every week.

1832

The Newcastle Journal was launched and thrived in the mining and shipbuilding industries. It was printed weekly until 1861, when it became a daily.

1851

The Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner started as a weekly by a group of local politicians including Joseph Woodhead and twenty years later became a daily paper after it was re-branded the Huddersfield Examiner.

1855

Liverpool Daily Post launched. In 1879, its sister paper the Liverpool Echo was first published. In 1904, it merged with the Liverpool Mercury and formed a public company. In the 1980s, both papers were relaunched as tabloids.

1857

John Frederick launched the Birmingham Post. Thirteen years later he published the first edition of the Birmingham Mail.

1859

The Sporting Life was born. Twenty-four years later it became a daily newspaper, and three years after that it acquired its rival - Bell's Life in London - and proudly proclaimed itself 'the oldest sporting paper in the world'. In 1983, the Life launched weekly sister title The Weekender. In December 1996, the Sporting Life's website was established. The final edition of the Sporting Life was printed in May 1998, and sportinglife.com was sold to UKBetting in 2001.

1869

Cardiff's The Western Mail was first published.

1870

The first copies of the Belfast Telegraph appeared on the street. Northern Ireland's largest-selling newspaper was acquired by Trinity in 1996. The Belfast Telegraph titles were sold in 2000 as a condition of the merger.

1881

Captain Armstrong and Sir William Madge launched The People. The Jack the Ripper murders provided the paper with one of the decade's greatest scoops. In 1972, it changed its name to the Sunday People and two years later switched from broadsheet to tabloid.

1884

The first issue of the South Wales Echo was published. The title is now the principal evening paper in Wales.

1891

Coventry Evening Telegraph launched. It was the first British publisher to deliver a newspaper by four-wheeled power. November 15, 1940 is the only day in the paper's history that it wasn't able to publish - due to the Blitz raid on the city.

1895

The Daily Record began publication, and in 1914 the Sunday Mail was launched.

1903

Alfred Harmsworth launched the Daily Mirror, a 'paper for gentlewomen', with a mainly female editorial staff. But within a year, Hamilton Fyfe took over as editor, putting more emphasis on photo-journalism, turning around Harmsworth's 'failed experiment'. In 1910, it had its first Royal photo scoop with a picture of Edward VII lying in state.

1915

Launch of the Sunday Pictorial as a major photo-journal. Circulation soared thanks to a series of articles written by Winston Churchill. Within three years of joining in 1938, 24-year-old editor Hugh Cudlipp helped circulation reach 1,700,000. In 1963, it was renamed the Sunday Mirror.

1919

The first issue of Newcastle's Sunday Sun reached the newsstands.

1936

The Daily Record became the first newspaper to carry colour pictures.

1953

The Daily Mirror broke all world records by selling seven million copies on Coronation Day.

1964

The Daily Mirror's circulation was five million - the highest in Europe.

1971

The Daily Record became the first mass-circulation UK daily to print in colour.

1984

Pergamon Holdings Limited, a wholly owned Maxwell private company, bought MGN, owners of the Daily Mirror. After Maxwell's death in November 1991, it was discovered he had plundered the pension fund.

1985

Trinity was born when the Liverpool Post & Echo was separated from its holding company. Initially called Trinity International Holdings plc, the name was simplified to Trinity plc in 1988. At that time, Trinity bought the North Wales weeklies series.

1989

Wales On Sunday launched. In 1992 it was voted UK Regional Newspaper of the Year.

1992

Scottish & Universal Newspapers Limited, Scotland's largest group of paid-for and free newspapers, became the first of many acquisitions for Trinity. The next year it expanded into Yorkshire and Southern England with the Huddersfield Daily Examiner and Trinity Newspapers Southern - which included the Reading Newspaper Company and South London Press.

1994

Mirror Group left Fleet Street for its new home in Canary Wharf.

1995

Cable channel Live TV was launched. Trinity Mirror ceased broadcasting the channel four years later.

1996

Trinity became the largest regional publisher in the UK when it bought a group of award-winning daily and weekly newspapers from The Thomson Corporation.

1997

Mirror Group acquired Midland Independent Newspapers for £305 million. Its portfolio included Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd, the North Midlands titles previously owned by Newsquest and exhibitions and magazine company Inside Communications. In the same year Mirror Group acquired a licence to publish the Racing Post, and Trinity bought the Dublin-based Sunday Business Post.

September 1999

Trinity plc and Mirror Group plc merged to become the biggest newspaper publisher in the UK.

2000

As a condition of the merger, Trinity Mirror was required to sell the Belfast Telegraph. Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media was the eventual buyer. Later that year, the company acquired Southnews, a deal which added over 80 titles to the Trinity Mirror portfolio.

2001

Trinity Mirror sold its ISP, ic24, to Brightview Ltd.

2002

Trinity Mirror sold the Sunday Business Post to Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd. Later that year Ethnic Media Group Ltd, part of Trinity Mirror Southern, was sold to a management buy-out.

2003

Sly Bailey is appointed Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror plc. She implements a new strategy for the Group to transform the business, improve performance and enhance shareholder value.

2004

Trinity Mirror's Preliminary Results announcement shows the strategy is delivering ahead of expectations, and that the Group has achieved the best year-on-year profit improvement since the merger in 1999. The company also completes the sale of its regional newspaper businesses in Ireland - Century Press and Publishing Limited and the Derry Journal Limited - to venture capital group 3i.

2005

As part of Trinity Mirror's digital growth strategy, the company buys four complementary online classified advertising businesses: Smartnewhomes, GAAPweb, the hotgroup and Secsinthecity.

2006

Trinity Mirror buys another online classified business - Email4Property - and sells its Magazines & Exhibitions division. The Group also sells the traditional recruitment consultancy division of the hotgroup, retaining the online division.

Sir Victor Blank retires as Chairman of the Board and is replaced by Sir Ian Gibson.

2007

Trinity Mirror acquires TotallyLegal Limited, owners of Totallylegal.com and Totallyfinaincial.com and Globespan Media Ltd, publisher of Homesoverseas.co.uk and Showhouse.co.uk and their magazine counterparts.

The Group sold its sports division including the Racing Post and a number of assets which were part of Trinity Mirror Southern including South London Press, North London & Herts Newspapers, Yellow Advertiser and Berkshire Regional Newspapers.

2008

Trinity Mirror acquires the recruitment website Career Engineer, property websites What House (Globespan) and Zoomf and the award-winning online web design and development consultancy, Rippleffect.

Trinity Mirror continued to invest in organic digital growth, extending the Group's reach into local markets through the launch of over 200 new websites including 56 newspaper companion websites and over 90 hyperlocal sites.

Thirteen mobile sites were launched across the Group's regional and national newspapers, putting Trinity Mirror at the forefront of mobile publishing.

2009

Mirrorfootball.co.uk and 3am websites were launched.

Also launched were regional cash-back websites and a new online business directory called Local Mole which connects local users with local businesses.

The People newspaper was revitalised, giving it a crisp, fresh new design, full colour and a new independent political positioning.