Two of Britain's newspaper bosses lined up to attack Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC Trust, for saying that "nobody can be satisfied" with the quality of the country's local and regional press.

Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, owner of the Liverpool Echo, and Tim Bowdler, the chief executive of Johnston Press, owner of the Yorkshire Post, said that his remarks implied that he had prejudged a review of BBC plans to expand its local websites.

Ms Bailey accused Sir Michael of holding "outrageous views" and making "an astonishing attack on the local press" and said that "research shows consumers rate regional press as more trusted than any other media, including the BBC".

Newspaper groups are unhappy about BBC proposals to introduce 'hyper-local' news websites, covering a town or county, which they believe will stifle their digital growth, at a time when their profits are crumbling in the wake of the economic downturn caused by the credit crunch. The plans, though, have to be approved by the BBC Trust, which Sir Michael heads.

Mr Bowdler said that Sir Michael's remarks "must undermine confidence in the regulatory process - because it would appear that a decision had already been made, despite our lobbying". Ms Bailey went further, and said that they showed the "entire regulatory process to be a sham".

The BBC battled to limit the fallout from Sir Michael's comments which were made on Wednesday at the tail end of a lunch briefing with the Broadcasting Press Guild - and argued that they did not indicate that the chairman's mind was made up on whether to approve the local websites.

On Wednesday he said: "There's nobody who can be satisfied with the quality of local news in most parts of the United Kingdom," at a lunch organised by the Broadcasting Press Guild.

But a day later, a spokeswoman for the BBC Trust highlighted some of his other comments, as demonstrating he had an open mind. "Speaking about the BBC Trust approval process, he said: "The local press has nothing like the strength that it once had. It's not the same proposition that it was 15 years ago. Will the BBC make it better or worse? That's exactly the issue to be explored."

Elsewhere an executive at the Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the Hull Daily Mail, said that Sir Michael had "appeared to have overstepped his brief" in a sign of how widespread the concerns are amongst the regional newspaper owners.

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