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Lord Black said yesterday that he was retiring and that several other board members were resigning in the wake of revelations that $32.15m (£19m) in unauthorised payments had been made to executives at Hollinger, including $7.2m to Lord Black.

At the same time, Hollinger said that the investment bank Lazard was looking at the options for Hollinger, which owns newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, and its wholly owned subsidiary Telegraph Group, publisher of the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator.

Whether this will end up with Hollinger being broken up or sold in one piece to an investor or, as the Daily Telegraph optimistically reports, a substantial minority investor recapitalising Hollinger, remains to be seen.

Only last summer Lord Black vowed that the Daily Telegraph would never be sold -- no matter how bad Hollinger's financial problems. But that was before the revelations over the unauthorised payments.

Top of the list of potential bidders is Richard Desmond, owner of Express Newspapers and the man who gave us magazines such as 'Asian Babes', who has long been rumoured to have an interest in the Telegraph Group.

The Daily Mail & General Trust is thought to be potentially interested -- although any of the UK newspaper groups looking at an acquisition faces tough scrutiny from the Competition Commission.

Overseas, the bidding is being led by the US financier Nelson Peltz, which, according to the Financial Times, has already begun due diligence.

Of the US publishers reported to be interested, the Washington Post and New York Times groups have been mentioned.

While Lord Black has stepped down from his role of chief executive of Hollinger, he remains as non-executive chairman and will oversee the strategic process with Lazard.

There has been criticism that Hollinger has done too little in the wake of revelations of the payments. The minority shareholder that triggered the investigation, Tweedy Browne, has said it is a disgrace. One of the company's analysts, Laura Jereski, is quoted in the Financial Times saying: "How much money has to leave the building before somebody calls the cops?".

However, Hollinger is defending its action, saying that the payments were only improper because the right paperwork was not completed, and that there was no implication that anything criminal had taken place.

Shares in the company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, soared on the news of Lord Black's departure yesterday, trading up by 16.5% to $15.73, a leap of $2.23. Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

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