Daily Mirror publisher to become "Reach" after Daily Express buy

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Daily Mirror publisher TrinityMirror plans to change its name to Reach, reflecting theBritish firm's expanded stable of newspapers after last month'sdeal to buy the Daily Express and Daily Star titles, it said onMonday.

The name change will be proposed at the group's annualshareholders' meeting on May 3, Trinity Mirror said.

The group also published 2017 results which showed revenuefell 12.6 percent to 623.2 million pounds ($861 million), andpretax profit down 8 percent.

Trinity Mirror blamed the difficult trading environment forthe declines, as readers and advertisers move online, andreiterated its belief that by buying the Daily Express and othertitles, it would be better placed to grow in the medium term.

The acquisition, completed on Feb. 28, unites tabloids fromopposite sides of the political spectrum and with conflictingviews on Brexit, in a strategy aimed at creating a biggercompany better able to cope with the switch away fromtraditional print news.

Illustrating that challenge, Trinity Mirror said underlyingprint advertising revenues were 19.3 percent lower in 2017.

Trinity Mirror said it expected the acquisition of the DailyExpress and other titles to be earnings enhancing in 2018 andsaw the outcome for the year in line with expectations. It alsolifted its final dividend by 6 percent to 3.55 pence per share.

Shares in Trinity Mirror, which has a market capitalisationof 225.4 million pounds, traded up 2.9 percent at 77.3 pence at1056 GMT.($1 = 0.7239 pounds)(Reporting by Sarah YoungEditing by Alexander Smith)