What will we lose if regional and local newspapers vanish? That's the subject of my London Evening Standard column today. It is a follow-up to my Comment Is Free posting yesterday, Do we really need local papers?
And that was also a follow-up to Polly Toynbee's article, This is an emergency. Act now, or local news will die.
I just wonder if anyone beyond the journalistic community is listening to us? And do they care anyway? The public may well support bank bailouts and there have been strident calls for car industry bailouts. But aside from a couple of MPs - Denis MacShane and Ann Coffey - there has been a noticeable silence about the threat to the future of newspapers.
