Match of the Day presenter and former England captain Gary Lineker is lending his support to this year’s Local Newspaper Week, run by the Newspaper Society.

This year’s week is themed Your Voice and an article written the former Spurs striker will be made available on the dedicated website alongside other contributions for local media editors to use in their titles between 10 and 16 May.

Each year, high-profile figures contribute brief written articles explaining why they believe local newspapers are important.

Russell Scott, digital commercial director with Northcliffe Media, will be testing his mettle tomorrow in one of the toughest endurance events on the planet.

He is hoping to complete the six-day, 250km Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara desert and raise £2,000 for Right to Play, a humanitarian organisation which uses sport to help children in areas of conflict and poverty.

In preparation, he has completing so-called ultra marathon events such as 50 miles in just one day.

For more information and to sponsor him visit his JustGiving page.

An event entitled ‘How will we pay for journalism in future?’ is being held in London in the summer.

The two-day conference will examine different experiments in sustaining serious journalism.

It takes place on 8 and 9 June at the University of Westminster – for more information email [email protected] or visit westminster.ac.uk.

A new advertising code has been launched and is due to come into force on 1 September.

It applies to all advertisements in newspapers, third parties’ ads on their websites, sales promotions and direct marketing.

More details can be found on the Advertising Standards Authority website.

University College Falmouth is running a series of writing courses this summer.

Among the classes being run are professional writing, business writing, writing your life story and screenwriting.

They are being run in July – for full details and to book visit falmouth.ac.uk.