Johnston Press appears to be quietly pulling down the paywalls it introduced on a number of its regional newspaper websites last year.

The publisher installed paywalls on four of its English papers and two Scottish titles in November, charging readers £5 a quarter to access web news in full and running short 'teaser' stories to promote items in the print editions.

Now stories that would have been hidden on the Whitby Gazette and the Southern Reporter in Selkirk are appearing in full.

And though some restrictions appear to remain on the other papers involved in the experiment - The Carrick Gazette, the Northumberland Gazette, Ripley & Heanor News and The Worksop Guardian - reports claim they will also revert to free.

Johnston Press today said it would not be commenting but the paywalls' failure to take off will be lamented by regional publishers.

We will soon see whether paywalls will fare better on a national scale. From June readers of the Times and Sunday Times will be charged £1 a day or £2 a week to access both papers' websites.