Get ready for a massive regional press shake up as Trinity, Northcliffe, Newsquest and Johnston prepare to play swap shop

The big regional newspaper publishers along with the Newspaper Society have been lobbying since before Christmas for a relaxation of the rules surrounding mergers and acquisitions applied to the local press.
The Observer reported yesterday that local newspaper publishers will submit a report to the Office of Fair Trading tomorrow "calling for a massive shake-up of competition laws that could herald a wave of mergers and acquisitions once financial markets stabilise."
The Observer article, headlined 'Let us merge or we'll die, say local papers', added: "If takeover rules are relaxed, analysts say, two or three regional press "supergroups" may emerge, and will be better placed to face the challenges posed by the internet and other media that are taking advertising from local papers.
"Investment bankers have drawn up plans for leading players such as Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, and Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), the "big four" regional newspaper groups, to swap assets or merge operations."
The Observer says that a scenario put forward by bankers "puts together local titles currently owned by Northcliffe,newspaper and magazine publisher Archant and Guardian Media Group. It also quotes Paul Richards at Numis Securities saying: "Bigger newspaper groups would still need to pay down debt, but thinner, leaner titles mean that staff could work across different publications, you wouldn't need separate central overheads."
What worries journalists is that more consolidation would lead to more centralised production and more job losses at a time when 900 editorial posts have been made redundant in the regional press since last July.
Some argue that alternative business models are needed for the local press. The NUJ is hosting a press commission of experts today to look at alternative ways of funding and supporting local media in the digital age.
The commission includes Roy Greenslade, John Lloyd, Barbara Gunnell, the Community Media Association, Keith Sutton, Nick Davies. Their views will feed in to the union's own submission to government on local media.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear on his blog argues that more consolidation and deregulation are not the answer. He says: "More of the same failed policies does not address the problem. Levies on the parasitic companies who aggregate news but don't produce any original content themselves (hello, Google - are you listening?) could secure widespread support amongst media workers and companies.
"A debate will rage about whether councils produce 'newspapers' because of the failure of local newspapers to cover their patch or the failure of local newspapers to be able to cover their patch is down to local council papers.
"Better use of government advertising to support local media is supported by most - the real question is how do you ensure that the revenues are used to bolster local journalism not just carry on rewarding shareholders.
"But any look at local media shouldn't just look at how to protect existing companies but how to help journalists, local communities and businesses develop alternatives that may be specialist, small-scale, may be trusts, co-operatively run or simply locally-owned companies.
"Whilst not much is clear in the debate at this stage, it is clear there is a strong support for quality journalism across the political spectrum and in local communities. And no-one must forget that quality journalism can only be delivered if you have enough journalists and editorial resources."