newspapers

I think there is important mileage in this review. I suspect social media has done for most very local papers now. At the micro end of the extreme though I would like to make a plug for parish papers and news sheets, which are still going strong and tell you a heck of a lot about tiny rural communities.

The government has announced a review into the future of the newspaper industry, warning the closure of hundreds of regional papers is fuelling fake news and is “dangerous for democracy”. But is it too late to save local newspapers?

There’s a spot just off the M6 in Coventry where you can time-travel into the 1950s.

Walking through beech-panelled boardrooms and a butler’s pantry you might not guess this was the Coventry Evening Telegraph for nearly half a century.

The rooms look abandoned mid-shift, as though the reporters have spiked their last story and walked out.

There’s a baseball cap on one of the old PCs, and old family photos on the desks.

The building was boarded up in 2012 when the paper finally left for more modern premises.

It’s due to be turned into a boutique hotel – just in time for Coventry’s turn as the UK’s new City of Culture in 2021.

Brushing dust from the huge but silent printing press Mick Williams, who started working at the Telegraph in 1972 aged just 16, says fondly: “This was my baby. Working here wasn’t just a job, there was a prestige attached to it because you were bringing people their news. It’s like a museum now.”