The 7th World Young Reader Conference will explore the full range of new strategies and tactics newspapers need to adopt in order to successfully connect with a generation increasingly accustomed to satisfying their news and information needs on their own terms and through increasingly non-traditional means and methods.
The World Association of Newspapers event is in Washington DC at the end of March.

The Newspaper Society, Newspaper Publishers Association, Periodical Publishers Association and the Publishers Association met DTI minister Margaret Hodge MBE MP, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, and DCMS minister Shaun Woodward MP, Minister of State for Tourism and Creative Industries, to discuss the Government’s creative economy programme, copyright, press freedom, self-regulation and distribution issues.

Tim Saunders is to be the new managing director of Staffordshire Sentinel Newspapers, after Richard Dodd announced that he is to retire at the end of the month.
Tim is currently assistant managing director/commercial director for Westcountry Publications. His media career started at the BBC in London before joining the Nottingham Evening Post in 1988, where he was appointed marketing director in 1997 before moving to the south west.

A £500 donation from Johnston Press has secured the provision of a new recruit for assistance dogs charity Canine Partners. The donation will pay for a puppy that will be trained to to become a friend and helper to a disabled person.

The Birmingham Post bus challenge will hit the road on Monday, when four volunteers will give up their cars for a week and attempt to travel to work by bus.
The idea was inspired by city council findings which concluded many people refuse to use buses because they see them as dirty, unsafe, unreliable and expensive.