Journalists at one of Britain's biggest newspaper groups have gone on strike.

After 11th hour talks between The NUJ and Reach failed, staff at the national company, which owns The Mirror, Star and Express as well as hundreds of local sites including KentOnline's opposition website KentLive, will walk out in a dispute over pay.

The NUJ has passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Reach chief executive Jim Mullen after claims he “kiboshed" a deal.

More than 1,150 journalists will strike today and for three days from Tuesday, September 13, while also working to rule from Thursday.

Reach refused to budge on a 3% pay offer despite making a profit of £143 million last year.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “We accepted the company’s invitation to talks brokered by ACAS, but ultimately, the lack of willingness on the part of Reach chief executive Jim Mullen to budge an inch meant the negotiations were doomed to failure. This is a business with cash in the bank, a business that is happy to spend £7 million on lavish pay packages for its top two executives, a business that is about to hand over a further £4m to shareholders.

“Yet is also a business that believes its hard-working journalists deserve a whopping real-terms pay cut, and refuses to come to an agreement on pay that will ensure our members can keep themselves and their families afloat this winter. It’s shameful that a media company that positions itself as a voice for communities around the UK and Ireland, with many titles that claim to be an ally of working people, would choose to treat its own staff so shabbily.”

The NUJ's Daily Record and Sunday Mail chapel said: “Reach plc is a highly profitable company which made £143 million last year, handed its two most senior executives a combined pay package of more than £7m, amassed a cash reserve of around £65m and is now paying its shareholders dividends of £14m. Reach titles have reported on industrial disputes around the country, rightly urging employers to offer workers a fair deal in the face of the cost-of-living crisis. The chief executive’s decision to kibosh any chance of a sensible deal means we have no option but to take strike action.”

A striking member said: “For years now, journalists have been vastly underpaid, especially when considering the qualifications and skills we need, the pressure and abuse we face and the vital service we provide to inform, entertain and hold the powerful to account. To know our bosses are lining their pockets with millions and paying shareholders a rise bigger than the insulting 3% they’ve offered us at a time when inflation is projected to soar to 18% is completely demoralising.

“Without the work of journalists at Reach in recent months, they’d have been no Partygate scandal broken, no agenda-leading journalism on climate change and no light in the darkness provided by our local newspapers in cities such as Liverpool this week hit by tragedy. It is time to reflect our service in our pay packets, not just in weekly emails with empty words.”