Trinity Mirror has agreed a £126.7m deal to buy the publishing assets of Express Newspapers owner Northern & Shell.
Under the deal, the Mirror and Sunday People publisher will acquire the Express and Star newspapers and weekly magazines OK!, New! and Star, bringing together tabloid titles from the opposite ends of the political spectrum.
According to the latest sales figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Express and Star have weekday circulations of 341,991 and 394,383, earning retailers a margin of £74.1.
Added to the Mirror's 538,298 weekday circulation, the deal will see Trinity Mirror secure a daily circulation of 1,274,672, bringing it closer to Times and Sun publisher News UK, which achieved weekday copy sales of 1,566,874 in the last ABC report.
In an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, Trinity Mirror's chief executive Simon Fox said the deal would not affect the publisher's regional titles.
"We operate around 100 regional titles and Trinity Mirror as a group makes over £120m. We're absolutely committed to continuing our investment in our great regional titles, both in print and digitally," he said.
A shareholders meeting to confirm the deal will take place on 27 February to approve the acquisition.
Comments
This article doesn't have any comments yet, be the first!