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THIS year has emerged as one of the most bizarre in the past decade or so for the national newspaper industry.

Not since the demise of the Robert Maxwell empire and his subsequent death has there been such a surreal and turbulent year for the press - both editorially (the Burrell saga) and commercially.

If the industry thought The Independent's slow move toward becoming a tabloid was an eyebrow raiser, then the move by The Times to follow suit in the London region will certainly have made many commentators wonder what on earth have senior newspaper executives been drinking this year.

And, just when it could not get any wackier, myriad players in the newspaper world - and some not so connected with publishing - are apparently pondering whether to buy Britain's biggest-circulation broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph.

Period of transition At a time when the Telegraph has already entered a period of transition - with a new managing director, editor and sales boss - the newspaper of the British Conservative establishment could suddenly move in a new direction.

One big question in the minds of many industry people is: just how would the paper's commercial culture change if another newspaper group swooped in and took over? The threat of a takeover at the newspaper, as a result of Lord Conrad Black of Crossharbour stepping down as chief executive last week, will undoubtedly unsettle the newspaper's commercial teams and the wider media world it deals with daily.

At present, it is far from a foregone conclusion that Hollinger International, the parent company that owns the Telegraph as well as the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, will sell off its UK interests.

This has not, however, stopped industry watchers from speculating endlessly on the likely contenders for a takeover of the Telegraph titles and The Spectator magazine - with Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond emerging as a leading contender.

A number of venture capital groups, with high-profile industry figures such as former Telegraph managing director Stephen Grabiner and, rather astonishingly, the recently ousted ITV chairman Michael Green, have already found their names being paraded as other challengers.

But it is the rival newspaper groups themselves that that are garnering the closest attention, especially with Desmond's fiercest commercial adversary, the Daily Mail and General Trust, rumoured to be preparing to come in with a bid in the region of £500m to £700m.

Hugo Drayton, the newly installed managing director at Telegraph Newspapers, admits the current situation is unsettling - especially for a senior management team that was put in place by Black only a few weeks ago.

Despite the ongoing speculation, the team has to "get on with the day-to-day running" of business, he explains.

The Telegraph's sales culture has often been likened to the newspaper - frequently called the Torygraph - itself: conservative, mature, driven and rather forthright. It is, perhaps, less heavy-handed than other titles.

So how would the sales team be any different at the Telegraph if Desmond, who, until three years ago, was best known for his other publishing interests, were to slap his own indomitable style on the newspaper? The stuff of legend Desmond's acquisition of Express Newspapers in 2000 is the material of media legends - and to say there was a shake-up when he first arrived would be an understatement.

Some agency press planners and buyers say that the outward image of Desmond as a ruthless and cut-throat operator does not extend to the everyday dealings they have with the sales teams on the Express and his celebrity magazines.

Nonetheless, Mark Gallagher, head of press at MGM OMD, says: "I suspect Desmond, if successful, won't spend time reviewing the financials and presenting a strategy for each [publication] brand months after acquisition.

I'd have thought he'd go straight in and make some significant savings in the short term."

Get the advertisers onboard Dennis Perks, media buying manager at Total Media, says the sales philosophy at Express Newspapers is built around getting the advertisers onboard first and has yet to become entirely focused on price, as it has on other titles, including the Telegraph.

"It would be a seismic shift in policy if the Telegraph were to change to a Desmond-style operation," he says.

"They [Express] are more concerned about the business overall and they'd want the increase in the volume first."

The current set-up at the Telegraph, would, in some ways, suit an Expressstyle operation as space is sold across both the daily and Sunday titles.

But the comparisons end there, says Perks. "The Telegraph is much more like Associated Newspapers at the moment because they'd say the sales yield [the revenue on each ad] is the most important part of the business."

The business model Desmond uses reflects the position his newspapers currently find themselves in: not market leaders but keen to raise the ir profiles and be as flexible to the desires of agencies as possible.

Alex Randall, head of press at Vizeum, says, however, that many titles that were once solely volume-driven are beginning to become more focused on yield - even the Express.

Associated Newspapers is unique in that every title has an individual sales operation with separate brands that are encouraged to compete against each other for business and, if it took over, the Telegraph titles would be in the same boat.

The style and culture at Associated is markedly different from those of Desmond's operations. While commercial policy of "lean and mean" could be attributed to the Express' sales force, Associated Newspapers is well staffed in terms of sales and client executives as well as management positions.

The sales style is overwhelmingly yield-driven - an approach taken at Metroand London's Evening Standard, and there is a well-known competitiveness between the sales teams on the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

Authoritative style Agency press teams say such investment in sales operations is a key factor in the group's success and has helped make it the market leader, which gives its sales teams an authoritative style.

Meanwhile, two of the other newspaper groups rumoured to be interested in the Telegraph include the New York Times Company and the giant US publisher Gannet, which already owns the Newsquest regional group in the UK.

The New York Times Company, which owns the NYT and the International Herald Tribune, has been sounding out the international newspaper market in recent years. Rumours on its plans range from takeovers of European titles to re-brandings of its own titles for a specific drive into the UK market.

A senior executive at News International executive, the parent company of which, News Corp, owns its rival, the New York Post, says a move for the Telegraph and its market would be "incredibly different and difficult" for the New York-based group.

"In the US, it practically operates in a monopolistic market [in New York state]," he says. "Culturally it would be a very different set-up over here, as it is a hyper-competitive market."

For Gannet - the publisher of USA Today, the US' first national daily - the UK is not uncharted territory. Although the group does not operate in the UK's national newspaper market, it does have more than 300 regional titles across Britain.

Similar sales strategies The group's sales strategies in the UK are similar in style to those of Express Newspapers and Gannet would, like Desmond's group, likely go for volume if it took over the Telegraph titles.

Les Middleton, associate director at MediaCom Accent, the agency's regional press division, says: "Newsquest wants to see as many of its titles on advertisers' schedules as possible."

He suggests market share is the key part of Newsquest's policy and the group would much prefer to have more of a share on its titles than yield.

So, as with an Express takeover, the Gannet approach might be a shock to the system for the more yield-oriented Telegraph sales teams.

The spectre of Desmond or Associated taking over will undoubtedly cast its shadow on the Telegraph in the coming weeks and months - and many industry observers suggest that the possibility of an American media giant knocking at the doors of Hugo Drayton's office cannot be discounted.

Then again, there's one Canadianborn media baron - Lord Black - who some at the paper are unwilling to count out just yet.