The departure of Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) from the Irish media sector will be mourned by media owners.

Of all the companies that have entered the Irish market over the past decade, SRH has probably contributed more to the high valuations put on Irish media assets, both radio and print.

As of yesterday however, these days appear to be over. SRH, including its Irish radio interests, will now be subsumed into Emap. The local papers have been sold to Johnston Press plc for £155 million (€233 million).

While former SRH chief executive Richard Findlay always denied the company overpaid for its Irish assets, there is little doubt SRH was prepared to pay significantly more than its competitors on several occasions.

One deal that raised eyebrows was the €26 million (plus €4 million in debt) paid for FM 104 back in 2003. At the time SRH bought the station, it had pretax profits of € 379,097.

Some industry observers were also surprised at the €7 million SRH was prepared to pay for Highland Radio, one of the smallest stations in the Republic.

On the other hand, the purchase of Today FM for about €64 million now looks like a tidy piece of business. The station is producing decent profits and with its listenership up 2 per cent to 15 per cent, is well positioned to eat into the market share of RTÉ in coming years.

It was often said by radio executives that if you wanted to sell a station the first company to ring was SRH, but in recent years the company has started to tell prospective vendors to be more realistic about their valuations.

For example Galway Bay FM, which was available for purchase last year, was too pricey for SRH at €16 - €18 million. Before yesterday's announcement the main buyers of radio stations were UTV and SRH.

On the newspaper front, the most active buyers were the Celtic News Group, Lord Kilclooney's Alpha Group, the Leinster Leader Group and SRH. These companies will now compete with the better resourced Emap and Johnston Press.

On the radio side, Emap has the kind of deep pockets that most Irish media companies dream of. With a turnover of over £1 billion and profits of £229 million, the company will be able to snap up any Irish assets it fancies.

Crucially, the man who has been running his rule over Irish media businesses in recent times for SRH, David Goode, is remaining involved with Emap, so that should ensure the buying spree continues.

Nevertheless, Emap are known for driving margins hard and there is every chance the Irish stations - Today FM, Highland Radio and FM104 - will be asked to step up their financial performance.

On the newspaper side, the sale of five Irish titles will be noted by the kingpins of the local and regional newspaper scene - Independent News and Media (IN&M) and Thomas Crosbie Holdings. Johnston Press, which owns big UK regional papers like the Yorkshire Post, is not quite on the scale of Emap (it has an annual turnover of about £518 million), but it is likely to pack a punch.

Yesterday, its chief executive Tim Bowdler said the company would like to be more exposed to "the dynamic Irish economy".

The record of British local newspaper publishers in Ireland is mixed. For example, publishers Archant found the going tough two years ago when it invested in the Dublin Daily. It had to beat a retreat after refusing to participate in a rescue plan for the title.

However, other companies like Celtic News have been buying up titles and making decent returns.

So, while SRH may no longer be around to buy radio stations or newspapers, others are likely to fill the gap.