The move will affect all titles published by the group across the UK, all levels of journalists and non-journalism employees, a spokesman for Trinity Mirror told Journalism.co.uk.
No bonuses will be paid relating to 2008 as part of the freeze, but a special incentive scheme 'in recognition of the hard work and commitment required' will be open to all employees in 2009.
"The severe economic downturn is having an adverse impact on all media businesses as advertisers reduce their spending," the spokesman said in a statement.
"Our priority is to safeguard the future of the group and we are taking a range of actions to reduce costs, including the announcement of almost 1,200 job losses and the closure of 44 titles."
A journalist at one of the publisher's regional titles told Journalism.co.uk the announcement had not worsened morale at their title, 'after what everyone's been through recently'.
"I think we were expecting a lot worse when they said they had bad news," they said.
"It's good to see that this is something that's finally been dealt with at all levels of the company, rather than just seeing how much can be cut in spending on the coalface. I think most people here recognise that things are difficult for the company on an unprecedented scale, and that drastic action was unavoidable, even if it was painful."
(Read chief executive Sly Bailey's full email to staff on our blog)
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has slammed the plans, which were announced in staff briefings today [Wednesday].
Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey will forego her bonus, 'but earning a salary of more than £720,000 will probably help her get over the loss', said Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, in a press release from the union.
"Today's [Wednesday's] announcement just goes to show how little senior managers at Trinity Mirror value the journalists that have been earning the company massive profits over the last few years," added Dear.
"It will be for our chapels to decide how they plan to react to these proposals. Our members will be asking why shareholders' dividends were put ahead of maintaining journalists' standards of living.
"It's one thing to make proposals like this which include commitments to stop redundancies, it's quite another to impose a freeze whilst slashing jobs from the business. That's a massive insult to Trinity Mirror journalists."
Bailey's job was recently criticised at the Society of Editors conference by former Trinity Mirror editor Chris Rushton, who expressed surprise that the executive had retained her role despite a 95 per cent drop in the market capitalisation of the group.
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