By John Glenday

Regional newspaper groups have called on the BBC to stump up £14m to pay for 364 journalists to report on local council and court meetings to plug what they regard as a ‘democratic deficit’ in regional news coverage.

This follows a long period of retrenchment in the industry which has seen local papers shed staff to make ends meet and the closure of hundreds of regional titles amidst increasing online competition, primarily from the BBC’s own website.

Despite funding problems of its own BBC director general Lord Hall has previously expressed his willingness to fund 100 journalists in Read full story ›

Source: The Drum