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Johnston Press has announced the purchase of Days Out UK, a travel database and guidebook publishing company.
Since its creation five years ago, Days Out has built a database of UK visitor attractions and special events which will now complement Johnston’s regional newspaper and on-line publishing activities.
The company is based in Northampton and will operate as part of the South Midlands Division of Johnston Press plc.


The hoglets of Gloucester can rest easy after readers of The Citizen donated enough cash to stop them going hungry this winter.
The newspaper opened an appeal to help hedgehog orphans, which raised £3,500 in just two weeks.
The cash will help pay for feed and shelter for the 70 animals.


A series of hard-hitting articles on domestic violence is being run in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph.
Reporters are investigating why it happens and what victims can do about it.
One of the biggest problems is being revealed as children who have to be protected – with 119 children having stayed at the town’s women’s refuge from April 2000 to March this year.


An Ipswich quintet completed their first-ever triathlons recently to raise over £2,500 for a local cancer charity.
Suffolk Publishing production department trio Phil Beicken, Mick Scanlon and Paul Skingley were joined in their sporting feat by Guy Watts and Ed Daughtrey of Getech.
A half-mile swim at Colchester Leisure Centre got the action under way followed by a 14-mile bike ride from Colchester to Capel St Mary and finally a seven-mile run from Capel to the EADT offices in Ipswich.


The family of an autistic teenager has thanked the Walsall Advertiser for giving him the chance to lead a more normal life.
Leon Forrest had missed four years of schooling because of a wrangle with the education authority over his special needs status.
But after his plight was highlighted in the paper a place was found on a residential training scheme.


The Hull Daily Mail has launched its Talent Trail 2002, which can act as a springboard to success and raises thousands of pounds for charity.
The Mail has chosen the Hull and East Riding Institute for the Blind and its Buses for the Blind appeal. The event is now in its eighth year.


Readers have collected more than 4m tokens in the Evening Chronicle’s Chron’ll Fix It! campaign.
More than 200 groups from in and around Newcastle have returned their entry forms to see who will scoop the £5,000 top prizes, which are distributed according to who has received the most tokens.


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