But Sara Wilde, managing director of Trinity Mirror's North West and Wales division, said the industry would survive the recession as it adapted to the needs of a changing readership.

Speaking to a cross-party group of Welsh Assembly members, Ms Wilde said she expected a 10-15pc reduction in her own company's operations.

But she said it would be a "great travesty" if the downturn led to a "the demise of newspapers in a large-scale way."

Ms Wilde said that across the UK there would be "a sharp contraction in the number of titles and editions" but suggested that would not necessarily happen everywhere.

In terms of her own company's operations, she added: "I think we might be looking at a 10-15pc contraction in our activity. That may not be about the number of titles that close, it just may be about the raw coverage of those titles, the editions, the distributions of them.

"Our business needs to operate into the future, needs to continue to be strong. It's going to have to be different - it doesn't mean it can't actually be successful.

"It would be a great travesty, not only for our business but also for communities, if beyond the recession we end up with the demise of newspapers in a large scale way."