Mirror Group Announces New Media Division and Free ISP
The Mirror Group has announced that it is creating a new group division – Mirror New Media and Interactive Services. The branch, headed up by David Clarke as chief executive (formerly chief executive at Virgin Net), will launch a free Internet service, ic24.co.uk (see Newsline). These developments are a result of the review which the group conducted following the appointment of chief executive John Allwood (see Newsline).
ic24.co.uk will be launched in partnership with major retail and financial brands on 30 April. Although a spokesperson at the Mirror Group could not yet reveal who these groups were, they made it clear that all are major companies. The technology for the new portal site will be provided by Cable & Wireless, Microsoft and Compaq, and will feature news from the group’s main newspapers, as well as online shopping, free email accounts and games.
The promotional campaign for ic24 will roll out at the same time as the site’s launch. CDs containing the new software will be distributed through retail newsagents nationwide.
Cornel Riklin, the Mirror Group’s group managing director of operations, commented: “David Clarke is a very important new appointment for the Group. His experience in this fast growing online industry will be invaluable to us in developing what we know is an important growth area for our business. Our existing sites are seeing exponential growth in traffic with revenues in online betting for example growing at 20% per month. Within 12 months, we intend to make ic24.co.uk the UK’s most popular internet portal site working in partnership with leading UK retailers and financial services companies to fully exploit online advertising and e-commerce opportunities.”
Following Mirror’s announcement recently that it has abandoned plans to relaunch the Sporting Life, the Group is planning to strengthen the online version of the brand – Sporting-life.com – through a new joint venture with the bookmakers Tote, branded Totalbet.
The Mirror Group, which is in the process of selling its shares in the Scottish Media Group to Granada (see Newsline), is also the subject of a bidding war between Trinity and Regional Independent Media (RIM) (see Newsline). The Group’s previous chief executive, David Montgomery, resigned following the breakdown of takeover talks with Trinity International and the rejection of second bid from RIM (see Newsline).
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