Trinity Mirror eyes Richard Desmond's Daily Express newspaper stable

A long-mooted tie-up between the Mirror and Express newspapers today looked like it could be back on the cards.

Responding to a Bloomberg report last night, Trinity Mirror told the stock market it is at an “early stage of discussions towards taking a minority interest in a new company comprising certain of Northern & Shell’s assets”.

It didn’t say which assets but the suggestion is Trinity would potentially take a 20% stake in the Express and Star papers as a way of sharing back-office costs to deal with falling advertising revenue.

A wider merger would then be possible, say analysts.

A tie-up was mooted nearly two years ago but failed, supposedly because Northern & Shell boss Richard Desmond (pictured) valued the papers far more highly than Trinity did.

Express papers made £30 million profit in 2015. He paid £125 million for them in 2000.