Speaking on the phone on BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show yesterday, former Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black, who was released from prison on bail in July, indicated that he may be interested in a return to media ownership.

Asked if he would buy newspapers if he were to return to media as an investor or owner, he answered: “not unless I was operating them myself”.

I think they have been so devalued that some of them are bargains now. Many of these great American newspapers are now in the hands of receiver managers, if they can be had for almost nothing they are a bargain.

He added that newspaper ownership would not be “a chief occupation…but it might happen”.