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Under current rules, there must be at least three separately owned commercial media providers across TV, radio and newspapers, in addi­tion to the BBC, in a given local area.

Looking ahead, the head of a major national newspaper group said the future UK local media landscape would be "more about local-level deals" and not the "for­mation of super groups" following any possible changes to the rules.

Alex DeGroote, media analyst at Panmure Gordon, said there would still be five big regional publishing groups following any relaxation of the rules, but they would be five "new groups", with remodelled operations, that will aim to build regional "clusters" with "local monopolies".

DeGroote suggested Northcliffe could become the dominant player in the East Midlands, Trinity Mirror in the North West and North East, Johnston Press in Yorkshire and Scotland, and Archant in East Anglia.  "If you divide the UK in six, I would expect each region to have one dominant publisher following any changes to ownership rules," he said.

Seven regional publishers set up the Local Media Alliance to convince the Government to relax the media merger rules. The LMA is chaired by Roger Parry, who will be chairman of Johnston Press until 24 April.

He believes a wave of consolidation among publishers is unlikely, arguing there will be a large number of title swaps between publishers instead of so-called "mega deals".

Many industry figures believe daily papers, and evening papers in particular, are more at risk than weeklies. And Parry said the future for most local media is a "hybrid franchise" of weekly newspaper, special magazine supplements and 24/7 website.

One analyst said selling individual titles could be a "good business opportunity" for Johnston Press as it "needs to do transactions more than anyone else", given its debt levels.

And some industry figures said  newspaper businesses with interests other than regional might look to offload their regional arms.

Lorna Tilbian, executive director, Numis, said Guardian Media Group "might sell now because it has Auto Trader and Emap", which are more profitable and help it to sustain The Guardian newspaper.

Media ownership review

• In February, the Office of Fair Trading launched a review into local media ownership rules
• The OFT plans to complete its review by mid-April and submit its findings to the Government ahead of the publication of Lord Carter's final Digital Britain report, due in early summer

Local media players: Who owns what? How are they performing?

Trinity Mirror

• Owns 13 daily paid-for titles, 54 weekly paid-for titles and 77 free weekly papers
• Presence in the North West, North East, the South and the Midlands; also owns national Scottish titles
• Announced in February that group ad revenue in the first two months of 2009 fell 30% year on year, with regional ad revenue down 37% year on year

Northcliffe Media

• Owns 113 daily, weekly and free newspapers, and has an online network of more than 155 local websites
• Northcliffe has titles in the Midlands, North East, South West, South East and South Wales
• Revenue was down 40% year on year in January and it suffered an 18% slide in revenue in Q4 2008 to £86m

Johnston Press plc

• Owns 18 dailies, 164 paid-for weeklies and 118 free weeklies, specialist titles and 323 local websites
• Owns titles in Scotland, Yorkshire, North West, the Midlands, the South and Northern Ireland
• Suffered a 35.9% year-on-year plunge in ad revenue between January and 11 March. UK revenue fell by 16.8% year on year in 2008

Newsquest

• Owns 300 weekly newspapers, magazines and trade publications, including 17 paid-for dailies
• Owns titles in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, London, the North East, North West and Scotland
• Ad revenue fell 38.7% year on year in the first quarter of 2009, with property ads down 60%

GMG

• Owns one hybrid paper, two paid-for dailies and more than 30 free and paid-for weeklies
• GMG Regional comprises Surrey & Berkshire Media and MEN Media
• Reported small pre-tax profit for the 2008/09 financial year to March, but profit has fallen by at least 85% compared with 2007/08

Archant

• Owns four daily titles, 26 weekly paid-for and 34 weekly free titles, 80 magazines and 160 websites
• Based in Norwich with businesses in East Anglia, the Home Counties, London and the South West
• Reported a 27.2% fall in pre-tax profit from £30.5m to £22.2m in the year ending 31 December 2008