Sunday Mirror Main Beneficiary After News Of The World Closure

Trinity Mirror PLC's (TNI) Sunday Mirror tabloid is officially the main beneficiary from last month's closure of rival News of the World in the U.K. by its parent company News Corp. (NW) following the phone-hacking scandal.

The Sunday Mirror's circulation increased sharply to 1,786,454 in July from 1,155,101 a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations national newspaper figures released Friday lunchtime. The figures were divulged by Trinity Mirror Chief Executive Sly Bailey earlier Friday on a conference call with reporters.

Trinity Mirror's People tabloid saw its circulation rise to 806,544 in July from 539,692 a year earlier.

News Corp. closed the News of the World on July 10, amid scandal over allegations of phone hacking and other malpractices. The 168-year-old tabloid was the U.K.'s best-selling Sunday paper, with an average circulation of 3.7 million, according to analysis firm TGI Kantar Media UK. Some 3.8 million copies of the final issue were sold.

As a result, News Corp. now only has three U.K. newspaper titles: The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

In the wake of the scandal, Trinity Mirror last month said it would review editorial practices at all its newspapers. Rival Daily Mail & General Trust PLC (DMGT.LN) also said last month that non of its titles had published stories based on intercepted phone messages.

News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

-By Lilly Vitorovich, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-0-207 842 9290; [e-mail]