Britain's Trinity Mirror Plc, publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror newspapers, is in talks to buy rival Local World Holdings Ltd as it attempts to build scale to help counteract the impact of falling advertising revenue.

Trinity Mirror put no price on the possible deal, which a report in The Sunday Times had valued at close to £200 million. If the deal goes through, Trinity Mirror would be able to expand the offerings on its automated advertising system, which matches advertising seen on websites to customers browsing those sites, by giving it access to Local World's regional newspapers.

Shares in Trinity Mirror, which has been cutting costs to protect profit, rose 7 per cent to 149p by 09.00 GMT, still well below their high for the year of 207p set in March. – (Reuters)