Minding the regional news gap

This year’s general election could see the future of the local media becoming one of the central issues of debate. Steven Barnett, an advisor to the House of Lords Communications Committee’s investigation into news and media ownership, suggests that the election will take place against a backdrop of “probably the most cataclysmic financial crisis in journalism since the beginnings of an unfettered press”. In particular he draws attention to the parlous state of regional news on ITV, which, combined with the crises facing local newspapers, could result in major reductions in professional journalism at the local level – a real threat to democracy