A new independent press regulator is due to be launched next spring with backing from the “vast majority” of the regional press, say industry leaders.

Publishers met this week to sign contracts establishing the “tough and effective” new Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

Earlier this month press reform campaigners attempted to persuade regional newspapers to shun the plans in favour of a watchdog backed by Royal charter but most have supported the new self-regulatory system, which is expected to be up and running by May 1 next year.

Publishers that have so far signed up include Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, Local World, Archant, and Tindle Newspapers as well as national publishers Northern & Shell, Telegraph Media Group, Associated Newspapers and News UK.

A government backed royal charter on press regulation was sealed by the Queen but industry leaders claimed the move wiped out 300 years of press freedom and are pushing ahead with the creation of Ipso, which will not have any formal verification.

Paul Vickers, chairman of the industry implementation group, said: “Publishers from across the national, regional, local and periodical press have been meeting today to sign contracts to establish the new Independent Press Standards Organisation.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with publishers representing more than 90% of the national press and the vast majority of the regional press, along with major magazine publishers, signing.

“This is an important milestone in the process of setting up the UK’s new self-regulatory system. We will therefore now move to complete the full implementation of Ipso – which will be an independent, tough and effective regulator fully in line with the principles of the Leveson Report – by May 1 next year.”

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said: “This is a welcome and hugely significant development for the press and the public.  It is an important milestone in the establishment of a tough, new system of regulation. Leveson said this would be the ideal outcome.”

Lord Hunt of Wirral, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, said the successor body would be “independent and effective” and “in accordance with Leveson principles”.

The Financial Times, the Guardian and the Independent have yet to sign-up to to the new self-regulator.

A Guardian spokeswoman said: “The Guardian has not ruled out joining Ipso in the future, but – along with one or two other national papers – has concerns about some aspects of the proposed regulator, which we continue to discuss.

“We have consistently argued for a regulator that is independent of politicians and credible with the public. We will continue to engage in conversations with all concerned parties in order to help achieve this.”

Responding to the IPSO announcement, Hacked Off director Professor Brian Cathcart accused newspaper groups of “barricading themselves into the Last Chance Saloon.”

“They are determined to avoid truly independent and effective self-regulation, as Leveson recommended. Instead, they have come up with a scheme that is at least as bad as the discredited Press Complaints Commission (PCC). It is a rebranding exercise designed to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.

“IPSO would allow newspapers to continue to inflict misery on ordinary members of the public, often when they are at their most vulnerable, and would allow papers to cover up their own wrongdoing in just the way they did before.

“IPSO is a disaster waiting to happen.  The press are spending millions of pounds defending the indefensible. Newspapers are foolish to engage with it on any level.”