Senior figures from the regional press are to give evidence to the ongoing Commons inquiry into the state of the industry.

The culture, media and sports committee of MPs launched an investigation into the future of the sector in the wake of the spate of job cuts and newspaper closures earlier in the year.

Already, the inquiry has heard evidence from media analyst Claire Enders who claims around half of the UK’s 1,300 local and regional titles face closure in the next five years.

Now the representatives of the Newspaper Society, the Press Association and leading regional publishers are to be asked for their views.

Press Association managing director Tony Watson, editor Jonathan Grun and head of content John Angeli will give evidence to the committee on Tuesday at 10.30am.

They will be followed at 11.30am by NS director David Newell, Northcliffe Media MD Michael Pelosi, KM Group chairman Geraldine Allison, and Ed Curran, editor-in-chief of the Belfast Telegraph.

The committee is made up of cross-party representatives and is chaired by Tory MP John Whittingdale.

Comments

hack (07/07/2009 07:57:30)
Its all very well having an inquiry but all these people are singing from the same hymn sheet. If this inquiry was to be a proper look at the industry why doesn’t the committee speak to a local reporter on a local paper. Why not get an indpendent editor or MD to speak to them. Lets hear from the front line about the way newspaper companies have run themselves into the ground instead of hearing them say the same old same old…