The
Daily Mirror was launched by
Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, "for gentlewomen" in 1903. The company was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange on 2 December 1953. In 1958 the
International Publishing Company (IPC) acquired Mirror Group Newspapers, but IPC was in turn taken over by publishing giant
Reed International in 1970. In 1984
Pergamon Holdings, a company owned by
Robert Maxwell, acquired the
Daily Mirror In 1991, the company was due to be investigated via an
Anton Piller order for alleged theft of software from companies including
Adobe Inc.,
Autodesk and
Microsoft. The action was delayed as it coincided with Maxwell's death, but was recommenced in 1992. Subsequently it was reported that "At the Mirror Group, for instance, 700 out of the 800 software programs in use were found to be illegal". The company bought Scottish & Universal Newspapers in 1992, and in 1997 it acquired the
Birmingham Post and Mail group of newspapers. During 2005, the company introduced a number of measures to manage discretionary spending more carefully, some of which attracted press attention. In 2007, the company sought to sell a number of titles: the
Reading Chronicle was sold to Berkshire Media Group and 25 Trinity Mirror South titles were sold to
Northcliffe Media. On 1 October 2007 it was announced that the sale of the
Racing Post had been completed: the entire sale process had raised £263 million. In September 2008, the company announced that it would be closing the printing plant in
Liverpool after 154 years of printing in the city, and transferring the work to Oldham. In February 2010, Trinity Mirror bought the regional M.E.N. Media and S&B Media divisions of
Guardian Media Group, containing 22 local titles across Northern England and in Surrey and Berkshire. This included the
Manchester Evening News and
Reading Evening Post. In January 2012 it was announced Trinity Mirror acquired Communicator Corp, a digital communications company specialising in email and mobile communications for £8m. In August 2013, Trinity Mirror announced its partnership with whocanfixmycar.com, a portal connecting motorists nationwide with trusted local garages and mechanics. In June 2014, Trinity Mirror transitioned its online bingo software from Dragonfish to Virtue Fusion from
Playtech for its group of bingo brands. In November 2015, Trinity Mirror purchased
Local World, a major stakeholder in local news titles, from
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). Local World had been formed by former Trinity chief exec David Montgomery in 2012 to consolidate all DMGT's local newspaper holdings other than the
Metro, expanding their holdings while streamlining production, to make the group more saleable. Its 115 titles were formed primarily by those of Harmsworth's historic
Northcliffe Newspapers Group, alongside other smaller purchases made by DMGT and Local World subsequently, including the 2007 purchase from Trinity. The purchase increased Trinity Mirror's local circulation by around 50%. The deal valued Local World at around £220 million. In February 2018, the company completed the acquisition of the publishing assets of
Northern & Shell, including the
Daily Express,
Sunday Express,
Daily Star (collectively the Express & Star Group), and
OK!. Following completion, Trinity Mirror announced a plan to rebrand as
Reach, subject to investor approval at a meeting scheduled for May 2018. Following completion of the acquisition, the
Competition and Markets Authority launched a preliminary investigation into the deal, requiring Trinity Mirror to keep Express Newspapers as a standalone entity. In July 2020, Reach announced that it was cutting 550 jobs, 12% of its workforce, because of falling income amid reduced demand for advertising in its titles. In early 2023, Reach announced its plans to launch US operations for the Mirror, Express and the Irish Star, having already launched Liverpool.com, a dedicated Liverpool FC site aimed at US audiences. Since then, it has built an operation of about 70 people dedicated to those profitable US titles. In March 2025, Chief Executive
Jim Mullen stepped down from his role and was replaced by Piers North, formerly the company’s Chief Revenue Officer.
Phone hacking In January 2011, former MP
Paul Marsden announced that he was considering taking legal action against Trinity Mirror, over alleged
phone hacking. On 24 September 2014, Trinity Mirror admitted that some of its journalists had been involved in phone hacking. It admitted liability and agreed to pay compensation to four people who had sued for the alleged hacking of voicemails (entertainer
Shane Richie, soap actresses
Shobna Gulati and
Lucy Benjamin and BBC creative director
Alan Yentob). The four also received an apology. Trinity Mirror also announced that it had earlier settled six other phone hacking claims in relation to former England football manager
Sven-Göran Eriksson, footballer
Garry Flitcroft, actor
Christopher Eccleston, showbusiness agent Phil Dale, Richie's wife Christine Roche and Abbie Gibson, a former nanny of David and Victoria Beckham. As of September 2014, a further 19 claims were registered at the High Court and another 10 claimants had indicated they would bring proceedings against Trinity Mirror. Other reports claimed that the number of victims could be much higher, with Evan Harris, associate director of the pressure group
Hacked Off describing the revelations as: "… just the tip of a very big iceberg". On 6 November 2014,
Graham Johnson, pleaded guilty at
Westminster Magistrates' Court. On 13 February 2015, Trinity Mirror published a public apology to "all its victims of phone hacking" on page two of the
Daily Mirror. It also set aside funds to cover the cost of settling phone hacking compensation payments. The same apology was printed in the following editions of the
Sunday People and
Sunday Mirror. On 21 May 2015, damages totalling nearly £1.25m were awarded to eight people as the result of phone hacking by Mirror Group journalists, including actress
Sadie Frost (£260,000) and ex-footballer
Paul Gascoigne (£188,250). Other damages recipients included soap opera actors
Shane Richie (£155,000),
Shobna Gulati (£117,500) and
Lucy Benjamin (real name Lucy Taggart, £157,250), as well as BBC creative director
Alan Yentob (£85,000), TV producer Robert Ashworth (former husband of
Coronation Street actress
Tracy Shaw, £201,250) and flight attendant Lauren Alcorn (former girlfriend of footballer
Rio Ferdinand, £72,500). The Mirror Group said it would consider whether to seek permission to appeal against the size of the damages, but increased the money allocated to deal with phone hacking claims from £12 million to £28 million. ==Operations==