The Guardian Media Group has sold most of its regional media division to Trinity Mirror, which ends the newspaper firm's long-held Manchester connection, with the Manchester Evening News and a string of other North West based local titles part of the deal.

So called MEN Media will become a division within Trinity Mirror, while the Guardian's South-England newspapers will be absorbed by the new owner's existing operations in that area. GMG's papers in Woking and Manchester TV station Channel M are not part of the deal, and it is unclear what will happen to them now that the Guardian's regional media division will all but cease to exist.

The Guardian was once the Manchester Guardian, of course, but has been a primarily London-based newspaper since the 1960s.