Weekly newspapers across the UK are set to be promoted in a TV campaign in the New Year.

The Weekly Independent Newspaper Association, which represents smaller newspaper publishers, has announced plans for the multimedia campaign to promote the benefits and importance of local weekly newspapers in the communities they serve.

The advertising campaign will be launched on TV in the New Year and will also feature in local newspapers and their websites, posters, leaflets and radio.

A steering group for the campaign has been formed under Joanna Parlby, chairman of WINA and managing director of the Newark Advertiser Media Group.

Other members of the group include Sir Ray Tindle, chairman of Tindle Newspapers, Geraldine Allinson, chairman of Kent Messenger Group, and Jeremy Willis, chairman of Newbury News Ltd.

Also involved is Russell Whitehair, a former chairman of North Wales Newspapers for 25 years and former Newspaper Society president, who is co-ordinating the campaign.

Weekly newspapers have a readership of 22.5m adults, according to research carried out this year by TGI, and WINA is highlighting them as a “strong, powerful and effective advertising medium at the heart of their communities”.