Trinity Mirror became the latest "old media" group to embrace the new yesterday when it outlined plans to invest £150m over three years in a network of national and local websites.

The company aims to develop the business , using content from its stable of newspapers, on the back of its internet service provider and portal, ic24, which has 215,000 users. Another 16 regional portals will be set up with revenues primarily advertising-driven.

The group has established a new media division headed by David Clarke, formerly managing director of Virgin.Net, and set targets of acquiring 1m access customers by the end of the year. Trinity Mirror is offering unmetered access which it estimates will cost £6m this year.

But, just as publishing group Emap's investment in the web was greeted with a 12% fall in its share price on Thursday, so Trinity Mirror suffered a 29.5p slide to 709p. Analysts said the online market looked increasingly crowded.

The company reported its first set of results since Trinity group bought the Mirror in September last year and turned in a 14% improvement in pre-tax profits during 1999 to £168m. Turnover increased by 4% to just over £1bn and the dividend was lifted 10% to 16p a share.

Mr Graf reiterated the board's support for Mirror editor Piers Morgan whose share dealings sparked controversy last month.

"If you look at the share price then clearly the episode has had no damaging effect on the group," he said. "Would we rather it hadn't happened? Yes, of course."