Trinity Mirror, owner of the Sunday Business Post, the Belfast News Letter, and the Irish Mirror, has reported a 10 per cent drop in first-half profits amid an advertising slump and has laid out plans for a strategic review to slash costs.

Britain's largest regional newspaper group said it would shed a total of 800 jobs in the next two years as part of a major cost-cutting programme to boost its flagging profits.

The group declined to give any information on the performance of the Irish operations.