Regional newspaper bosses Lord Rothermere and Sly Bailey have been named among the 100 most powerful people in UK media.

Daily Mail & General Trust chairman Lord Rothermere and Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey have been listed in the MediaGuardian 100, which includes senior figures from the worlds of press and publishing, TV, radio, new media, advertising, marketing, PR and the City.

Lord Rothermere again came in at number 24, the same as last year, with MediaGuardian commenting that 2005 would be remembered as the year he put Northcliffe Newspapers up for sale and “2006 will be remembered as the year he took it off the market”.

His ranking sees him 14 places behind Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre because “unlike other newspaper proprietors, Rothermere doesn’t intervene in the day-to-day editorial running of his newspapers”.

Sly Bailey is ranked at number 32, also the same as last year.

MediaGuardian said: “It’s been another tough year at Sly Bailey’s Trinity Mirror group. The circulation of its three flagship titles continues to decline, and advertising revenue has tumbled at its national and 250-strong regional newspaper base.

“Bailey’s response was to cut costs – around 400 jobs have been axed from the 11,000-strong workforce since November – and go shopping. Trinity Mirror spent nearly £100m on four classified websites last year, led by the acquisition of recruitment service Hotgroup.”

Others on the list with regional press connections include Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, dropping from 18 last year to number 30. They sold the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News to Johnston Press.

Tony O’Reilly, chief executive of Belfast Telegraph owner Independent News & Media, is at 43 – up from 48 last year.

And Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission is at 93, dropping from a ranking of 71 last year.

MediaGuardian said: “Sir Christopher Meyer has had his toughest year yet in charge of the Press Complaints Commission. And the newspaper story that caused him most grief was written by the PCC chairman himself.

“The serialisation in the Guardian of the former Washington ambassador’s autobiography, DC Confidential, prompted a furious row in which government ministers including John Prescott and Jack Straw called on him to resign.”