#!/usr/bin/env perl -l

use strict;
use warnings;

my $html = '<span class="author-name" itemprop="author">Romaxton</span>';
my $re = qr{<[^>]+>([^<]*)<[^>]+>};

print "The idea is to reduce:\n", $html;
$html =~ s/$re/$1/;
print "to\n", $html;

##</code><code>##

The idea is to reduce:
<span class="author-name" itemprop="author">Romaxton</span>
to
Romaxton