The company said that the website, the first dedicated site the Sunday People has had, did not hit the traffic targets that had been expected over the three months since launch.

People.co.uk, a multi-million pound digital offering dubbed “Buzzfeed for grown-ups”, went live on 5 November… The Daily Mirror publisher has previously said that its digital projects, such as the successful UsVsTh3m, have to produce results or they will not continue to be backed.

“Our aim is to become one of the UK’s leading multi-media publishers and we will only achieve this by experimenting with new digital ideas,” added [Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon] Fox.