The race is on to fill a key mediation role in time to herald a new era of regulation for the regional press.

The appointment of a £30,000-a-year complaints officer for the new voluntary and self-regulatory Independent Press Standards Organisation is still being advertised on a House of Commons-funded jobsite.

Candidates have until tomorrow to register their interest for the latest vacancy of the voluntary body which starts work in earnest for the newspaper and magazine industry early next month.

The job advertisement on w4mp says the role will include investigating complaints, drafting rulings and mediating between complainants and publications where appropriate.

But because IPSO is starting its operations at the beginning of September, it is looking for interviews to be held and a new recruit appointed “as soon as possible.”

The advert details add: “The Independent Press Standards Organisation is looking to recruit an articulate, efficient and highly motivated individual to join its complaints-handling team.”

Earlier this month former civil servant Matt Tee was appointed chief executive of IPSO to work alongside chairman Sir Alan Moses – an ex-Appeal Court judge – to establish the replacement body for the Press Complaints Commission as an “independent and credible regulator.”

Last year complaints about regional press stories accounted for nearly three in 10 cases investigated by the now-defunct PCC.

The 2013 published figures for the PCC showed that of the cases it investigated, 28.9pc related to regional newspapers, while 53.8pc were for national newspapers, 10.1pc for Scottish newspapers and 2.5pc for Irish newspapers.

Most of the regional press and magazine publishers have signed up to the new regulator which has former Leicester Mercury, South Wales Echo and Derby Evening Telegraph editor Keith Perch as the regional press representative on the 12-man board.