An independent weekly paper has been saved from closure after the journalist who founded it nine years ago came back on board as its owner.

Danny Lockwood co-founded Dewsbury-based title The Press in 2002 but stepped back from the business in 2007 to focus on two sporting magazines which he publishes, although he remained a columnist at the paper.

He has now bought The Press from editor Martin Shaw and managing director Terry Johnson who owned it as Leader Publishing – saying the title was ‘dead in the water’ and would have been forced to close if he had not stepped in.

Danny says the paper is now back in profit after he bought it last month, employing former Yorkshire Post colleague Lucy Tissiman to run the commercial site of it, and he is planning to launch further newspapers.

He said: “The Press was struggling. We share the same building and when the guys ran out of steam and out of money, I had some ideas about how it could be turned around.

“Sometimes when you have had a break from a business, you see it completely differently and we perhaps had more resources and had some fresh ideas.”

“We are just enthused by the challenge that we have despite all the doom and gloom in the regional press.”

Danny is now looking to launch more titles, hoping to create a new product by the end of August, as long as he can find the right staff.

He has a number of ideas for launching newspapers and said he was in talks with a Lancashire-based company for a possible new venture.

He added: “I am a newspaper man of over 30 years and I think I can give readers and advertisers what they want.”