This week I learned that one of the local newspapers serving the East Parishes part of Sefton has stopped being published by Trinity Mirror.

It seems that our rush to get our news on line is killing off traditional print media. I always thought this would be the case with national newspapers but it seems that local titles are suffering as well.

Sadly local papers are hardly able to train up reporters these days and the sad thing is that when you do speak to a local reporter the chances are that they do not know the community, the street, and the community groups well at all. Sometimes they are based in offices miles away from the community they are reporting on. Do they have the time and training to check out stories and get to the bottom of things? I wonder because at times you get the impression that cutting and pasting press releases from the Council and political parties is pretty much what is happening much of the time.

Having said all that the East Parishes communities are a little spoilt as we have an old fashioned reporter who lives here, knows just about everyone and whom we all like and trust to report matters well. Why he even attends Parish Council meetings to get real parish pump stories. I bet that is almost unheard of in most places these days. So well done Jim Sharpe a reporter who loves the Town he lives in.