Local newspapers are nearing the end of their Cretaceous era. The asteroids – recession and the internet – have landed and the K-T extinction horizon is imminent. A recent study by Deloitte observed that the future for local papers had moved from “difficult to impossible”. Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP says old media will “never be as profitable as it has been”. The Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer face bankruptcy; the London Evening Standard was sold for £1. Enders, the media consultant, says half the jobs in UK local papers, 20,000 people, could go in the next five years. Unfortunately, I agree with them unless radical steps are taken.

Having had a ringside seat for more than a decade, I have three predictions for the local newspaper industry in the UK by 2014: total local advertising income will be less than it is today; many local daily titles will have been converted into weeklies; and the number of journalists and sales people will be down 50 per cent.