ADVERTISING AND THE FUTURE OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL MEDIA

That this House recognises the important role played by local and regional media; expresses concern about the huge difficulty facing local newspapers as advertising revenues plummet during the current downturn, resulting in staff, sub editors and editors facing redundancy, such as Vanessa Taylor at the Chorley Guardian, who is taking voluntary redundancy after over 20 years of providing quality journalism at the local newspaper; and looks to the Government and local authorities to support local newspapers through placing adverts in the paper as opposed to producing their own publications, which attracts advertising away from local newspapers and only further challenges the future of local newspapers.