KMG pulled out of a bid for the titles last month after the OFT referred the deal to the Competition Commission, which KMG said would have led to unacceptable costs.

The publisher has now said that it is looking for 10 voluntary redundancies across its local newspaper titles.

Meanwhile, Northcliffe Media announced this week that, in the wake of the decision, it has decided to close the Medway News and East Kent Gazette, two of the titles that would have been purchased, with 35 jobs under consultation.

All seven of the titles KMG intended to buy are being reviewed, but Northcliffe Media executive director Rich Mead told PrintWeek that he did not expect any other titles to close.

He added: "There were positive signals about allowing mergers, but the OFT has not bought into that yet - frankly the decision was madness. There are so few places with two titles, it just isn't the norm and it is difficult enough to make money in an area with one title.

"It is always very difficult with smaller titles. If they are loss-making the best thing to do is work with a title down the road and say go and do something better, we wanted to give KMG an opportunity to do that.

"If the OFT had given the decision there probably still would have been closures and job losses. But they would have been much more thought through if carried out by one publisher.

"We don't know what they are thinking with regards their titles, it would make more sense if all the titles in the area were reviewed together. Trinity Mirror took a decision to close three newspapers in Staffordshire recently. I believe that if this decision had been given they would have looked to offload them to somebody rather than closing them."