Trinity Mirror in talks to buy Richard Desmond’s Express and Star

Trinity Mirror had been in talks about acquiring a minority stake in a new company that included the Northern and Shell titles

Desmond founded Northern & Shell in 1974 (Reuters)

Trinity Mirror has announced that it is in talks to buy all of Richard Desmond’s Northern and Shell titles, including the Daily Express and Star as well as OK! magazine.

In January, the published of the Daily Mirror had confirmed that it had been in talks about acquiring a minority stake in a new company that included the Northern and Shell titles.

On Friday it said that it was "in discussions to acquire 100 per cent of the publishing assets of Northern and Shell". Any deal would require approval of all of Trinity Mirror’s shareholders.

Founded in 1974, Northern and Shell launched OK! magazine in 1993 and acquired the Express newspapers in 2000 for £125m.

A tie-up would bring left-leaning Mirror under the same roof as the Daily Express and Sunday Express, which both backed the Leave campaign in last year's Brexit referendum.

Analysts have in the past said that commercially synergies would makes sense. The print media is grappling with a fall in print advertising revenues. A deal could lead to cost-saving.