Trinity Mirror will terminate its regional motoring copy service Driving Force and outsource the operation in 2009 to reduce costs and increase multimedia content, Media Guardian reported Tuesday.

The operation has been in-house for the past six years, and will be replaced by an independent company called Driving Force Media. This will make the current Trinity Mirror staff redundant.

The move is being made to cut costs, said Neil Benson, Trinity Mirror Regional's editorial director, according to Media Guardian.

"As of Jan. 1, basically the command and control function of the motoring operation moves to fulfill Trinity Mirror's desire to outsource its motoring content," Chris Russon, Trinity Mirror Regional's chief motoring editor and Driving Force coordinator told Media Guardian. Russon will leave his current job to set up the new organisation.

Currently the publisher provides motoring copy to its regional titles, through a password-protected Web site, which is in charge of a team of about 18 journalists. The new system will operate basically the same but with the outside company, Russon told Media Guardian.

It will coordinate the 80 to 100 motoring articles produced across the group each week, as well as supply freelance material and develop multimedia content for its regional paper sites, according to Media Guardian.