The move in many ways achieves what KM Group and the Gazette publisher Northcliffe Media were attempting to do when KM Group tried to purchase seven Kent-based titles from Northcliffe.

KM Group pulled out of the deal after the OFT referred its decision on the merger to the Competition Commission, a process that KM Group said would be too expensive.

Since then Northcliffe Media closed two titles, including the Gazette, while KM Group made 10 redundancies.

However, a Kent local-monopoly may still happen, if Northcliffe continues to close titles and KM Group opens them, calling into question the OFT's decision to refer the decision in the first place.

KM Group's new title Sittingbourne News Extra went on sale yesterday (December 14), just a week after the East Kent Gazette and its sister title Medway News closed.

It will be dedicated entirely to Sittingbourne and run alongside KM Group's Friday title the Sittingbourne Messenger, which carries more county-wide news.

KM Group chairman Geraldine Allinson said: "We believe there is a real need for a community newspaper serving the people of Sittingbourne, and if the KRNM deal had gone ahead we would certainly have continued to publish the East Kent Gazette.

"We hope readers and advertisers will support the new title, which will be devoted entirely to the Sittingbourne area. We look forward to providing people with a truly local voice."

Editor Matt Ramsden added: "We are very conscious that people quite rightly had a close bond with the East Kent Gazette and that we cannot hope to replace 156 years of history. However, we hope we can work with the community to deliver a newspaper that, in time, they will think of as their own."