Trinity Group: Chronology
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
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- Antecedents (1734)
- The Mirror era (1947)
- Maxwell and Trinity (1984)
- Expansion by Trinity (1992)
- Expansion by Mirror (1996)
- Trinity Mirror (1999)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.
Antecedents
1737 Belfast News Letter launched
1832 Newcastle Journal launched
1842 Scottish Daily Record launched
1855 Liverpool Daily Post launched
1859 Sporting Life launched
1879 Liverpool Echo launched
1857 launch of Birmingham Post
1870 launch of Birmingham Mail
1869 Cardiff Western Mail launched
1870 launch of Belfast Telegraph
1881 launch of The People
1884 South Wales Echo launched
1891 Coventry Evening Telegraph launched
1895 Daily Record launched
1903 Alfred Harmsworth launches Daily Mirror as a 'paper for gentlewomen'
1904 Liverpool Echo merges with Liverpool Mercury
1904 Liverpool Daily Post & Echo Ltd formed
1914 Harmsworths launch Sunday Mail
1915 launch of Sunday Pictorial
1919 launch of Newcastle Sunday Sun
1936 Daily Record becomes first major UK newspaper to carry colour pictures
The Mirror era
1947 Harmsworths float Daily Mirror
1949 Daily Mirror buys Melbourne Argus
1957 Liverpool Daily Post buys Birkenhead News Group
1957 buys Stephenson Newspapers of Southport
1957 Daily Mirror sells Melbourne Argus to Herald & Weekly Times (H&WT)
1957 Daily Mirror closes Glasgow Evening News
1958 buys Red Deer Advocate, first Canadian newspaper
1963 Sunday Pictorial renamed Sunday Mirror
1964 Daily Mirror's circulation at five million is highest in Europe.
1971 Daily Record is first mass-circulation UK daily to print in colour
1972 The People renamed Sunday People and becomes tabloid
1978 Liverpool Post buys first US newspaper
1979 Lonrho buys Scottish & Universal Investments (SUITS) inc George Outram (Glasgow Herald and Evening Times) and Scottish & Universal Newspapers (SUN), Scotland's largest group of paid and free newspapers
1983 The Weekender launched
1984 Liverpool Weekly Star launched
Maxwell and Trinity
1984 Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Holdings buys MGN, owners of the Daily Mirror, from Reed for £113m
1984 Liverpool Post & Echo group restructured as Trinity International Holdings, with Liverpool Post & Echo operations transferred to subsidiary of holding company
1988 Trinity International Holdings renamed Trinity plc, buys North Wales Independent Press (weeklies) for £5.6m
1989 Wales On Sunday launched
1991 Maxwell raises £245.5m by floating 49% of Mirror Group
1991 Maxwell assumed to have committed suicide after looting his companies
1991 Trinity buys Merseymart free newspaper group
Expansion by Trinity
1992 Trinity sells paper and packaging interests for £27m
1992 Trinity buys Scottish & Universal Newspapers (SUN), Scotland's largest group of paid and free newspapers from Lonrho for £45m
1992 Mirror sells The European to Barclay brothers
1993 Trinity buys Huddersfield Daily Examiner and other Joseph Woodhead & Sons assets
1993 buys Reading Newspaper Company and South London Press
1993 buys 26 titles from Argus for £23m
1994 Mirror Group moves to Canary Wharf
1995 Cable channel Live TV launched by Mirror
1996 Trinity becomes largest regional publisher in UK through purchase of UK Thomson Regional Newspapers for £327.5m
1996 buys Kentish Mercury newspaper chain from Pearson
Expansion by Mirror
1996 Mirror buys 90% stake in Belfast News Letter for £15m
1997 Mirror Group buys Midland Independent Newspapers (MIN) for £297 million - portfolio includes Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd, North Midlands titles previously owned by Newsquest and exhibitions and magazine company Inside Communications
1997 Mirror Group gains licence to publish the Racing Post
1997 Trinity buys Dublin-based Sunday Business Post
1997 sells Red Deer Advocate and 32 other Canadian newspapers to Black Press for US$58m
1998 The Sporting Life published its final issue as a racing paper
1998 Mirror buys Derry Journal group for £18.25m
1998 sells 46% stake in Independent and Independent on Sunday to INM
1998 Voice Media call handling bureau established
1999 Live TV ceases
1999 Trinity pulled out of merger talks with Mirror Group. Regional Independent Media (RIM) then bids £913m
1999 Mirror Group turns down a £972m offer from Trinity
1999 Mirror Group sells its 18.6% holding in Scottish Media Group to Granada for £110m
1999 Mirror sells former Holborn headquarters for £40m
1999 Welsh Mirror launched
1999 Mirror launches M weekly women's magazine
Trinity Mirror
1999 Trinity International and Mirror merge in deal that valued the latter at £1.2bn
2000 Trinity Mirror announces plans to invest £150m in internet strategy
2000 as a condition of merger, Trinity Mirror sells Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life to O'Reilly's Independent News & Media for £300m
2000 buys Southnews group of over 80 titles for £285m
2001 sells ic24 ISP
2001 Trinity Mirror had a capitalisation of £1.34bn
2002 sells Sunday Business Post in Dublin to Thomas Crosbie for €10m
2002 sells Ethnic Media Group (Eastern Eye, New Nation and three other national titles) to £10m MBO
2003 agrees to sell Irish regional newspapers (inc Belfast News Letter and Derry Journal) to 3i for £46.3m
2005 launches then closes Communities Today
2006 closes West Midlands newspaper Sports Argus
2006 sells magazine and exhibitions arm Inside Communications to MBO for £41.5m (Inside becomes Ocean Media)
2006 agrees to sell consultancy division of Hotgroup for £11.2m to Ochre House