Unreported Britain: the social effects of disappearing regional newspapers

"If you lose your local paper, I don't think that anything will necessarily replace that," former president of the Society of Editors, Keith Sutton, said at a debate on the future of regional media last night.

The loss of newspaper archives before they are digitised will be a devastating blow to local communities and society more generally, said Sutton, speaking as part of a panel at the Frontline Club.

"The real concern is that it [the local media] is losing its value as a collector of social history - all those archives that have not yet been digitised," he added.

Sutton, who edited award-winning regional newspapers in the north west and also held senior executive positions on the Daily Express and the Evening News during the course of his career, said there should be state-funding and backing for the digitisation of all local paper archives.

"The same should happen locally as is happening with national newspapers," he said, adding that regionals 'are as much owned by the community as they are by passing owners'.

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University and blogger at MediaGuardian, said he knew of local councils that were currently going unreported by regional media.

Despite jokingly describing himself as the 'Harold Shipman' of newspapers when discussing the diagnosis and treatment of an ailing industry, Greenslade, who recently stirred up debate with his views on free weeklies, said people wouldn't 'realise the good' of the local paper's role until it was gone.

Even a local paper that is not necessarily read by the whole community will see its goodness 'filter' out across the whole community, Greenslade added.

Newspapers, for example, fulfill a function in pushing councils hard and pointing out problems with road safety, he said.

"It's for the good of the whole community that it acts. That loss is something people won't necessarily be fighting for because they don't know they're losing it. We as journalists - that's our job - it's for us to ensure that we try and fight to save it," he said.

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