Conservative Party co-chairman Lord Maurice Saatchi was the guest at a Newspaper Society presidential lunch for regional publishers and editors.
He was the co-founder of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in 1970 and is now a partner in M&C Saatchi. He was appointed co-chairman of the Tory Party in November. Discussions at the lunch covered Tory Party plans, media ownership and press freedom issues.

Broadcasting and Media Freedom: Is the UK model broke? will be examined at the World Press Freedom Day seminar by the UK Press Freedom Network, a group of media and press freedom bodies.
Chaired by BBC journalist Robin Lustwig, speakers include Media Minister Lord McIntosh, BBC journalist and broadcaster Charles Wheeler, BBC deputy director of news Mark Damazer, Sky News political editor Adam Boulter, Channel 4 senior commissioning editor Dorothy Byrne, and Stewart Purvis, the former chief executive of ITN.

Photographs from Stoke Sentinel columnist John Abberley’s latest book are on public show at an exhibition.
The pictures, which show famous old factories and potters at work, chart the history of Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry and can be seen at the city’s New Vic until May 1.

Dr Denis Gartside, who leads the postgraduate programme in Broadcast Journalism at Falmouth College of Arts, showed the Minister for the Arts Estelle Morris the industry-standard production facilities for TV and radio in the Media Centre, the first of the new buildings to be opened at the College’s Tremough Campus.
The Media Centre has a fully-equipped TV studio, where students can learn all the disciplines of television and video production, from researching and editing to directing.

A toddler facing blindness unless chemotherapy can destroy tumours behind her eyes is about to set off to visit Disneyland, after Shields Gazette readers helped raise £13,000 – three times the original target.
The paper said it wanted to ensure that if her eyesight was to be lost, then her last views of the world would be happy ones.

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]