National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear has welcomed Government proposals that would allow journalists to report on family courts for the first time. He said: “Anything that improves the openness of the judicial process and the accountability of courts in this country has to be a good thing.”

New presses at Staffordshire Newspapers are now on line, replacing the existing press, which had capacity for 32 colour pages. The new press, installed due to demand from advertisers, can now cope with up to 48 colour pages for the Burton Mail and its associated weekly publications.

Breakfast show DJ John Marshall took over as editor of the Lincolnshire Echo for a day as part of a deal in a reader’s “trading up” experiment, swapping items and stunts of increasing value to turn a bottle of beer into a VW camper van. The Lincs FM man “thoroughly enjoyed” his time in the hotseat.

The Bristol Evening Post has launched a new community challenge, Love Bristol, where the paper has teamed up with the Barclays Community investment Programme to divide £10,000 between locals to help them make the most of there area in renovation and improvement projects.

A group of old soldiers who served together in Singapore held an emotional reunion after the Sunderland Echo helped bring them back together. Londoner Bob Collier got in touch to ask if the paper could help track down his old pals – and the paper duly obliged.