The culture secretary is challenging newspapers to draw up a better model for self-regulation than the one they put to the Leveson Inquiry.
Newspaper editors will meet Maria Miller on Tuesday to discuss their response to the Leveson report.
Their plan was criticised in the report for being insufficiently independent.
Mrs Miller says the "gauntlet has been thrown down" to newspapers to demonstrate how they could regulate themselves without legislation.
'More Levesonian'Tuesday's meeting comes after Lord Justice Leveson called for a new independent watchdog for the press, which he said should be underpinned by legislation - something largely rejected by newspapers.
Victims of press intrusion - the latest to add her voice being author JK Rowling - have urged the government to implement the Leveson Inquiry's recommendations in full.
But the Leveson report has exposed divisions in the coalition government, with Prime Minister David Cameron opposing statutory control, while his deputy, Nick Clegg, wants a new law introduced without delay. Labour leader Ed Miliband also supports a new press law.
"Start Quote
End Quote Author JK RowlingWithout statutory underpinning, Leveson's recommendations will not work. We will be left with yet another voluntary system from which the press can walk away"
BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says the government would like to see the press draw up something more "Levesonian" than their original proposal for self-regulation put together by Lord Hunt and Lord Black.
Lord Hunt, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), told the Times newspaper he is urging the industry to accept the principles recommended by Lord Justice Leveson for an independent self-regulatory body.
Lord Hunt, who is attending Tuesday's meeting, said he wanted the new regulator in place by the end of June at the latest, to try to help persuade people there was no need for the statutory underpinning put forward.
Many newspapers have praised Mr Cameron's opposition to law-backed regulation of the press, but a Daily Telegraph editorial published online said Lord Justice Leveson was right to say the press could no longer "mark its own homework".
It said: "While adopting many of the ideas for an improved regulator put forward by Lords Hunt and Black, Sir Brian [Leveson] insists that the press should not be able to 'mark its own homework' by controlling the new body.
"He is right - the new regulator should largely conform to the format outlined in the report, in terms of its structure, its independence from Fleet Street, and its powers to impose discipline."
Proposed new press law
Would:
- Create a process to "validate" the independence and effectiveness of the new self-regulation body
- Validate a new process of independent arbitration for complainants - which would benefit both the public and publishers by providing speedy resolutions
- Place a duty on government to protect the freedom of press
Would not:
- Establish a body to regulate the press directly
- Give any Parliament or government rights to interfere with what newspapers publish
An industry source told the BBC that newspapers were keen to meet the challenge of showing how they could regulate themselves without legislation, but added: "It's clear from pressure from Labour and Lib Dems that time isn't on our side."
Our correspondent understands there will be further disclosures from the newspaper industry over the weekend designed to demonstrate a sense of direction and unity ahead of a Commons debate on Monday.
He adds: "None of this addresses the central political problem of whether there should be the new law that Lord Justice Leveson deemed essential but that newspapers reject."
Lord Justice Leveson's 2,000-page report into press culture, practices and ethics, published on Thursday, followed an eight-month public inquiry launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
The report said that some press behaviour had been "outrageous" and "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people".
Lord Justice Leveson said the press - having failed to regulate itself in the past - must create a new and tough regulator but it had to be backed by legislation to ensure it was effective.
'Alarmed and dismayed'On Friday, inquiry witnesses Gerry McCann and Christopher Jeffries launched an online petition, run by campaign group Hacked Off, to get the Leveson findings implemented in full.
Mr McCann said: "Clearly the public want it, there's been a judicial review and I think the recommendations should be implemented. There's no good reason why they shouldn't be."
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Gerry McCann and Christopher Jefferies launched the Hacked Off campaign petition at Westminster
Mr Jeffries said: "Certainly I think it [Mr Cameron's decision] has been influenced by the pressure he has received from newspaper proprietors and editors and by some MPs in his own party."
By Friday night the petition had been signed by more than 40,000 people.
Author JK Rowling said she was "alarmed and dismayed" at Mr Cameron's reaction to the report.
"Without statutory underpinning, Leveson's recommendations will not work. We will be left with yet another voluntary system from which the press can walk away," she said.
"If the prime minister did not wish to change the regulatory system even to the moderate, balanced and proportionate extent proposed by Lord Justice Leveson, I am at a loss to understand why so much public money has been spent and why so many people have been asked to re-live extremely painful episodes on the stand, in front of millions."
Hacked Off said victims had refused to meet the culture secretary because they felt "too let down" by the prime minister.
Following cross-party talks on Thursday night - which will resume next week - the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will begin the process of drawing up a draft bill implementing the Leveson recommendations.
Ministers said a draft bill would be ready in a fortnight.
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