INM has decided to end delivery agreements with independent newsagents for its flagship Northern Ireland title the Belfast Telegraph, saying their "inadequate delivery services" had affected circulation.

The company's chief executive Ivan Fallon told the Financial Times that small shops delivering newspapers would soon become a thing of the past throughout the UK.

"It's just not practicable in today's changed circumstances. I suspect you'll see the same kind of pattern you see in the US, where subscribers are directly with the newspapers rather than with the shops. The UK has been pretty anomalous in that regard," he said.

In a letter to independent newsagents in the province, the company said: "Although many newsagents individually provide an excellent home delivery service, collectively the agency system is failing and is no longer sustainable."

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents has expressed concern that newspaper publishers in the rest of the UK would start to do more of their own deliveries.

However the media blogger and former Mirror editor Roy Greenslade has criticised INM's decision and questioned whether newsagents are to blame for the Belfast Telegraph's sales decline of 9.6pc in the final six months of 2007.

"It will surely prove counter-productive. I predict that the result will be an even greater dip in the Bel Tel's sales," he said.

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