The News & Star in Cumbria took its most loyal reader out to dinner as part of Local Newspaper Week in May.
It was just one of the events aimed at showing readers how their local newspaper works and their importance to the community.
The Leamington Evening Telegraph found a lady who had read every copy of the paper for 75 years, and the South Wales Echo held its news conferences in a public library, along with an exhibition of historic front pages and photographs.
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The Ormskirk Advertiser looked at how readers had played a part in petitioning for improved health facilities.
Other coverage was aimed at the readers of the future. The Liverpool Echo ran a Young Journalist of the Year competition, while the Coventry Evening Telegraph relaunched its Insight magazine written by young people.
The Sunderland Echo ran a Young Newshound of the Year competition with a computer prize and the Gazette and Herald Yorkshire had a competition for schools.
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Articles celebrating the work of the young also appeared in regional papers across the country as part of the Prince’s Trust Local Reporting Award organised in association with the Newspaper Society.
Bob Russell, the Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, tabled an early day motion supporting Local Newspaper Week.
The motion said: “This house recognises the important role which local newspapers play in the life of their communities; congratulates the Newspaper Society for launching Local Newspaper Week; notes that the regional press is read by 40 million people every week; acknowledges that local newspapers are more trusted than national newspapers and calls on those who own and work on the 1,300 daily and weekly newspaper titles to promote high journalistic standards of accuracy, fairness, honesty and objectivity.” It has been signed by 38 MPs.
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