Analysis By Will Smale BBC News Online business reporter

Can Lord Black retain control of his newspaper empire?

Yet whatever happens to the two newspapers following Lord Black's departure - Hollinger says it is now considering the sale of a main asset - media analysts are sure of one thing.

There is no way back now for the hard-talking peer.

So could this really be the end of Lord Black's 30 years in newspapers?

Roy Greenslade seems convinced.

The author of "Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda", Mr Greenslade believes it would be impossible for a title such as the Daily Telegraph to be owned by someone who, by his own company's admission, has pocketed $7.2m (�4.3m) in unauthorised payments.

He (Lord Black) is your typical verbose, bombastic megalomaniac, and they never go quietly Roy Greenslade

Mr Greenslade said: "Lord Black is on his way out - I don't think there is a way back for him.

"He has been irresponsible, and that is the nicest word I can use.

"There is no way he could continue to own a paper with a high moral opinion, such as the Daily Telegraph," he said.

Fight

Yet Mr Greenslade does not think Lord Black will go without a fight.

"He is your typical verbose, bombastic megalomaniac, and they never go quietly.

Richard Desmond is thought to be keen to expand his empire

"But I imagine it is out of his hands now," Mr Greenslade said.

Former Guardian editor Peter Preston also thinks Lord Black cannot fight his way back from the resignation.

"It is extremely unlikely - the rot has been setting in over the last three or four years," said Mr Preston.

'Credibility''

"Black cannot have much credibility left after so many denials that Hollinger was in difficulty," he added.

Mr Preston said Hollinger's recent difficulties reflected investor nervousness on Wall Street.

"Black doesn't make friends easily, but I don't think that any of this has come from anyone with personal animosity," he said.

Mr Preston continued: "Rather, all of this trouble has come out of big institutional investors in New York, who are more and more cautious of the way large companies are structured after the Enron affair - although I am not for one minute comparing the two companies.

"The other question for Black is that why as a chief executive officer of a large company, is he currently touring the world to promote his new book on Franklin Roosevelt?

"It would appear that some of this has to do with boredom and slacking on his part," he added.

Mr Preston says he expects the Chicago Sun-Times to be the title that Hollinger decides to sell. Mr Greenslade thinks it could still be the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Greenslade added: "A number of different groups may bid for the Telegraphs.

Monopoly

"The Washington Post might; Associated Newspapers (the owners of the Daily Mail) might, but I could see them having a terrible problem with the monopoly regulations; and Richard Desmond (owner of the Express and Star newspapers) might."

There is no love lost between Lord Black and Mr Desmond, who a few years back went to court over the ownership of a printing facility their companies have a joint share in.

Both claimed victory in the case.

A spokesman for Mr Desmond said he would not be publicly expressing his thoughts on Lord Black's resignation, or on whether he would bid for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph if they were put up for sale.

No one at Associated Newspapers was available for comment, but a spokesman for Trinity Mirror said the firm could not say whether it had any interest in buying the Telegraphs until - and if - they go on the market.