Regional newspaper growth to embrace digital technology is to be explored in a new two-part series on BBC Radio 4.

The programme, Read All About It, will explore the change behind regional newspaper firms' evolution into one of the top multimedia businesses in the UK.

It is presented by former Press Gazette editor Philippa Kennedy, who explores how different local and regional news organisations are responding to a "landscape of change" as new technology creates a shift in the way people receive information at a local and regional level.

The regional press employs more than 50,000 people and publishes 1,300 core newspapers, 600 niche publications, more than 800 websites, 28 radio stations and two television channels.

More than 40m people in the UK read a local paper in print and, with the increase in local media, the regional press is growing and reaching new audiences across its print and digital platforms.

The programme will explain how growth in local newspaper websites over the past 12 months means that regional newspaper companies have evolved to deliver local news and information around the clock – across print, online, and broadcast channels.

In the first programme, More Of A Business Than A Newspaper, Philippa will talk to editors about the business side of running a newspaper and returns to Plymouth where she started out as a trainee reporter on a Devon weekly.

She will travel the country to discover how important the local press is to the communities she visits and asks whether the local press and its increasing participation and preoccupation with new media has changed the relationship between the local newspaper and the community they serve.

Read All About It is on Thursday, November 8, at 8pm on BBC Radio 4.