NEWSPAPER group Trinity Mirror yesterday confirmed Sir Victor Blank was standing down as its chairman.

The group, which publishes Middlesbrough's Evening Gazette and the Newcastle Journal, Newcastle Chronicle and Sunday Sun, said Sir Victor would retire as chairman at May's annual meeting.

The announcement came as reports suggested Sir Victor was about to become chairman of Lloyds TSB, although the bank refused to comment on the speculation yesterday.

Sir Victor, 62, joined Mirror Group as chairman in July 1998 and oversaw the creation of the UK's largest newspaper publisher when Mirror Group merged with Trinity in 1999.

It gave Trinity Mirror - based at London's Canary Wharf - about 240 local and regional newspapers, four sports titles and five national newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and The People.