Trinity Mirror in talks to acquire Local World

The Trinity Mirror company has confirmed that it is currently in talks with Local World regarding a potential acquisition or merger between the two newspaper companies.

The group is seeking greater scale in order to address its falling advertising revenues and sees the takeover of Local World as a positive move towards this end.

Markets welcomed the news, which broke over the weekend, and shares in Trinity Mirror were up seven per cent in Monday trading as they reached a one-month high.

At the moment, the matter is still at the stage of discussion, but should things go ahead then it could well see the creation of the UK's largest regional newspaper group. Local World operates around 100 newspapers at the moment and had considered an IPO earlier this year, but the interest from Trinity Mirror appears to have been seen as a favourable alternative.

The move comes as a recent report has highlighted that 'hyperlocal' journalism is gaining momentum. Commissioned by Cardiff University's Centre for Community Journalism and innovation charity Nesta and written by Damian Radcliffe, the report said that there are now 400 active hyper local websites and over 1,000 local newspapers.

However, these groups are finding themselves challenged both by training matters and financial resources and as a result, more mergers in the sector are expected.

Mr Radcliffe commented in Journalism.co.uk: “Mergers, content sharing initiatives and closer collaboration are going to be an increasing reality at a local as well as national level, especially in geographic areas where companies aren't necessarily in competition with one another.”


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