CN Group Titles Save Our Services Campaign Wins Making a Difference

A powerful campaign by CN Group titles against proposed cuts to health services across north and west Cumbria has won the Making a Difference award for the best local newspaper campaign.

Twenty-eight local newspaper campaigns from the past year were showcased and the public invited to vote for their favourite in an online vote held earlier during Local Newspaper Week this week.

News Media Association chairman Ashley Highfield announced the winning campaign at Society of Editors Regional Press Awards today.

Speaking about the local newspaper industry, he said: “We face an alarming array of threats, from the draconian proposals contained within Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, to the leeching of our ad revenues by Google and Facebook.

“A key plank of our response to these challenges must be to show how highly trusted local journalism is produced and to explain why it is so important for democracy.”

“Through the Local Newspaper Week and Fighting Fake News campaigns, local newspapers up and down the country have highlighted the vital importance of local journalism, and the investment and expertise required to produce it.”

This year, the local press industry has come together to run the Fighting Fake News campaign coordinated by the NMA’s marketing arm for the local press sector Local Media Works, in the run up to LNW.

The campaign has seen a host of activity including a Trusted News Day last Friday which saw local papers open up their news rooms to readers in order to show how trusted local news journalism is produced. 

This year’s Local Newspaper Week has won the backing of celebrities Ben Fogle and Ed Balls as well as Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron.