The deal is worth �216m

The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times are being taken over by the American-owned Gannett Corporation in a �216m deal.

The corporation is the biggest newspaper publisher in the United States.

The Competition Commission had concluded unanimously that the sale of the titles by Glasgow-based Scottish Media Group (SMG) would not be against the public interest.

Gannett publishes 94 papers in the United States, including the country's largest selling newspaper USA Today.

It also owns 15 daily newspapers in the English regions and 200 weekly papers in England in its Newsquest group.

Television interests

After it sells the newspapers, SMG's main interests will be in television, radio and advertising.

It owns Scotland's two main ITV stations - Scottish and Grampian - together with Pearl and Dean and Virgin Radio.

It also holds a significant stake in Scottish Radio Holdings which owns many of Scotland's leading commercial local radio stations.

SMG believes it can hold onto its ITV stations even though Carlton and Granada - which own every ITV station in England and Wales - have reached an agreement over a possible merger.