I’ve always been a lover of local news. While the national newspapers and the News at 9, or 10, or whenever that’s on these days, are covering crucial international events, and the news from region is covering those crucial international events from a more local perspective - any sporting victory is usually followed in the Meridian region by an account from a local person who coached / fathered / is / shared a room with the champion.

Strangely, though, while there always seems to be quite a lot happening in the world, all over the world, none of it seems to be happening locally. Anywhere. Not in the UK at least. You only have to get a freeview box and watch any of the local news feeds on BBC to illustrate that. Perhaps it’s because those local news updates just aren’t local enough. Or maybe it’s just that 2-3 minutes isn’t enough to capture the excitement of a day’s happenings in any given region.

Moving down the scale, you have local newsapers. Full of local politics, community news, local sport, local crime, exciting stage event about to hit your area (ie anything London doesn’t want any more), and much, much more, including, on average, 733 pages of properties for sale. If you don’t live in the UK and want to get a feel for where local newspapers are coming from, I suggest you look no further than:

The Framley Examiner

It’s everything that every local newspaper is, all at once, and rolled into a bitingly funny whole.

In my life, I’ve read such luminary publications as the Maidenhead Advertiser, The Basingstoke Gazette, and The Hampshire Chronicle (actually quite a high-class one this, it’s even a broadsheet, which tells you as much about the demographic as you need to know) among others. All of them share the unwavering belief in the face of a) reality, and b) sales figures, that they are publishing exactly the sorts of news stories that all local residents want to read. Some of the time they have a point, but in whose eyes is a two-liner about a handbag being stolen from the back of a Vauxhall Nova in Honeysuckle Drive last wednesday newsworthy to anyone, at any level?

Of course, there is one level of local news left to mention. Namely, free local newspapers and journals. Now these really are the cream. If international news is too remote and intangible, and local newspapers too opinionated, or you just want to know what’s happening in the world around you (where the world around you measure about 2 acres), you can turn to the free local press. Or at least you can if you can find any. Perhaps there’s been a decline of late, or perhaps I just happen to live in an area mostly bereft of anyone enthusiastic and committed enough to contribute to, publish, or distribute free newspapers and magazines.

Damn that interweb. Still, I will do what i can to unearth local gems in the future.

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