NEWSPAPER publisher Trinity Mirror is joining the list of companies closing their final-salary pension schemes to existing members.

The owner of the Daily Mirror and numerous regional titles is entering a two-month consultation with staff after concluding it can no longer afford to support the scheme. It has long been a drain on the company, which has suffered from the advertising drought, and is a poison pill for any takeover attempt.

One of the four defined-benefits plans to be closed is the Mirror Group fund, famously plundered for £500m by former proprietor Robert Maxwell.

A spokesman said closing the funds “would help limit the increase in liabilities in the defined-benefit pension schemes” and also help eliminate their current deficit.

In the past eight years, Trinity has paid £259m into the final-salary scheme, but the deficit has still risen from £37m to £275m. It was closed to new members in 2003. The deficit accounts for 70% of the group’s debt. The scheme has 3,000 active members, who will be transferred to a defined-contributions scheme, and another 20,000 pensioners and deferred members.

BP, Barclays and Fujitsu have all announced similar moves recently. Trinity expects to save £9m a year, although the company emphasised that all savings would be ploughed back into reducing the overall deficit.

The announcement was criticised by the National Union of Journalists. “The scrapping of the final-salary scheme is the latest in a long line of attacks on staff at Trinity Mirror and serious questions need to be asked and answered about the capability of the senior Trinity directors,” said Paul Holleran of the NUJ.

Lorna Tilbian, an analyst at Numis Securities, thinks Trinity will report signs of stabilisation in advertising on Thursday after better than expected trading from ITV last week.

Meanwhile, staff at The Observer will learn their fate on Tuesday, when executives are expected to brief them on the future of the newspaper. The Scott Trust, the charity that owns The Observer’s publisher, Guardian Media Group, has decided to keep the title but in a drastically slimmed down form. Staff are expected to find out which sections of the paper will be dropped and how many dedicated editorial staff will be retained. Some of its monthly magazines are facing the chop.

n The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will this week launch a consultation into scrapping the ban on product placement on television. Lifting the ban could benefit ITV by £100m a year.

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