A regional daily moved its newsroom away from the office for the first time as the newspaper begins a tour of its patch.

South Wales Argus journalists worked from in the town of Blackwood, around 15 miles from its Newport home, to launch its ‘Newsroom in the Community’ initiative.

The Argus announced the scheme in May as part of its 130th anniversary celebrations, inviting schools, community centres, places of worship, pubs, cafes and other businesses to host is newsroom for a day.

Their temporary Blackwood home was based at Cefn Fforest Community Centre, where the paper’s staff worked on Wednesday.

Argus editor Gavin Thompson with reporters Kasey Rees and Dan Barnes. Inset: Reporter Lauran O’Toole interviews volunteers at Cefn Fforest Miners Institute.

Speaking on the day, editor Gavin Thompson said: “Local news is all about community. It’s telling your stories and championing the good as well as sometimes reporting on the bad that goes on in them.

“The South Wales Argus has been reporting on local communities across Gwent for 130 years and this year, to celebrate our birthday, we launched the Newsroom in the Community initiative.

“The idea is we take the newsroom out to a community within the patch and base ourselves there for the day.

“It was brilliant to be in Cefn Fforest today and hear stories from the community such as the superb eco-park, the work being done at the community centre – who kindly hosted us for the day – and the passion behind the bid to restore the miners’ institute.”

He added: “It’s so important for our reporters to be out and about in the community, building contacts and telling their stories and it’s been an absolute pleasure to come to Cefn Fforest today.

“This was the first outing for this initiative but we’re keen to hear from other communities that would like to host us too.”