A south coast newspaper is to find out more about its readers and the issues they want to read about, by sending its reporters out on the road.

Portsmouth newspaper The News has begun a week-long series of roadshows as part of its We Are Listening initiative.

It is inviting readers to meet its reporters and tell them what they would like to see more – or less – of in the paper.

Starting out at Portsmouth’s Cascades shopping centre, the mobile surgery will travel across South East Hampshire and West Sussex, stopping at supermarkets, community centres and libraries along the way.

Editor Mike Gilson said: “We Are Listening represents the old-fashioned, back-to-the-community news coverage of the old days when staff actually met the public face to face.

“You can’t beat a reporter sitting down for a chat with the people who make our communities tick.

“That’s how we find out what’s concerning them, what’s going on, what’s worrying them and what delights them.”

We Are Listening is a major part of the paper’s We Are You campaign, which concentrates on its central role in the community.

To promote the campaign, posters bearing the slogan We Are You have gone display around the city, and feature ten readers whose faces can be seen on the sides of delivery vans, buses, bus shelters, and on giant banners outside the paper’s News Centre headquarters in Hilsea.

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