Dunfermline Press in limbo after death of Deirdre Romanes

Managers at the firm, which publishes more than 30 local papers in the UK and Ireland, remained tight-lipped about the company as speculation mounts that the heavily indebted firm will be sold.

Hannah Seaton, who is deputy managing director of Dunfermline Press but not a main board member, said: "There has been nothing more said. We are just trying to get over the unfortunate death of Mrs Romanes at the moment."

Jim Raeburn, director of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society, said: "There's a strong board of directors, there's a good management team there and I am confident that it is in safe hands."

Romanes, who joined the firm after marrying into the founding Romanes family, grew the business through aggressive acquisition, most recently buying 14 titles of Berkshire Regional Newspapers from Trinity Mirror for 10 million. But there have been suggestions that the firm overstretched itself, buying titles in Scotland and Ireland at the top of the market.

The firm's most recent accounts, the year to the end of March 2009, show the firm had bank debt of 29.7m, although most of this is repayable after five years.

Nevertheless, the firm produced only 160,000 profit on a 25.3m turnover, which turned into a 77,700 loss after tax.

In 2008 the firm made a pre-tax loss of 1m. The firm's lender is thought to be Bank of Scotland, although a spokesman for Lloyds Banking Group refused to comment.

Chris Oakley, a former European media consultant to private equity firm Candover, said the firm's debt will give pause to potential buyers. "If they were able to service their debt their prospects would have been fair," said Oakley. "But this triggers something rather more drastic. With the principle shareholder having died, I would have thought the banks will be looking closely at who is going to take it over, how they are going to run it and how they are going to service the debt.

"A change of ownership could mean the banks say thank you very much, we will have our money back, or negotiate new terms. The prospects are pretty uncertain."

Oakley rules out bids from the major newspaper groups, including Johnston Press – owner of Scotsman Publications – Trinity Mirror and Newsquest, on the basis they would be unlikely or unable to take on Dunfermline's debt.

Smaller, privately owned firms thought to be interested in buying Dunfermline include Alloa-based Forth Independent Newspapers; Peter Fowler, owner of a number of Scottish media firms including Peter Press and Jacob & Johnson, and Norwich-based Archant.

Although many people who worked with Romanes were aware she was ill, most were taken by surprise at her death due to bone cancer aged 60.

Romanes owned the majority of the firm – directly and through a trust. Her estranged husband, Iain Romanes, owns a small share, although it is believed he and his family, who founded the business more 150 years ago, own a 49 per cent stake in the business through Saltire Nominees, a Guernsey-based trust.

The death of Romanes leaves the board without its most active participant, leaving chairman Donald MacDonald, non-executive director Shields Henderson and Iain Romanes, who resides in Monaco. No successor as chief executive has been named.