Let's play every newspaper exec's favourite game!

Monopoly!

First produced by Parker Brothers in 1935, the game without an end has been a family favourite ever since.

Unfortunately the version of the game played by Britain's regional newspaper publishers isn't so much fun, for staff, advertisers and readers alike.

And it looks like someone at Newsquest Towers in South London has decided they can complete a colour group by doing a swap with East Anglian based firm Archant.

The errant email originated from the headquarters of Archant (bear with them, they've only just got electricity in Norfolk) and seems to indicate that the company which already owns the Easetern Daily Press, East Anglian Daily Times and daily papers in Ipswich and Norwich fancies spreading into Essex, taking over an evening paper and several weekly papers which go head to head with some of its own titles - plenty of opportunity to cut back!

Meanwhile Newsquest could take on a series of papers which it currently competes with in and around Somerset - more cutbacks and Pims all round in the boardroom (although our management are all so presbyterian it'll probably be mineral water).

Expect it to go quiet for a while, but the idea is just too obvious to go away completely. After all, the greed of these people knows no end - you just wander what other cosy little deals are being cooked up around the country?

And the losers keep on losing - isn't it about time they were packed off to jail (without passing Go or collecting £200 million?)