US investment bank Tweedy Browne, which holds 6% of Trinity Mirror, is one of the groups pushing for a sale of the Daily Mirror, according to reports.
Sir Victor is resisting attempts to sell the paper off because of the loss of prestige that would come with the loss of the group's national daily newspaper.
Trinity Mirror also owns two national Sunday newspapers, the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, but the rest of Trinity Mirror's newspaper assets are made up of regional newspapers, which include the Liverpool Daily Post and the Western Mail.
Trinity Mirror is thought to have had a number of approaches to buy the Daily Mirror, but it is not known how many of these are serious. There has also been talk of a management buyout of the title, but this option is thought unlikely.
Tom Shrager, managing director of Tweedy Browne, was reported at the weekend saying that: "Sir Victor should be interested in shareholder value and he should know that the sum of the parts of the business are worth more than they are together."
He also added to the growing doubt about a business that sought to combine national and regional newspapers. "There are no synergies at all," Shrager told the Sunday Express.
The Daily Mirror has struggled to attract new readers despite a £20m rebranding campaign, an expensive price-cutting battle and a move upmarket. David Yelland, editor of the UK's biggest-selling tabloid The Sun, recently claimed that The Daily Mirror will never catch up with The Sun, no matter how often it reinvents itself.
The Sun, with an average circulation of 3.5m has a 37% share of the market in contrast to the Mirror's six-monthly average sales to September of 2.1m.
The turmoil has already resulted in Philip Graf, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, agreeing to step down in the summer of 2003. In July, Trinity Mirror reported a 4.6% fall in profits, and advertising revenues on its national newspapers were down 8%. Interim operating profits in the six months to June 30 fell to £95.9m, down from £100.5m last year, as the group invested £6.5m in marketing, most of which is thought to have been spent on its costly price-cutting war with The Sun.
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