WHAT next for local newspapers struggling to cope with the impact of the internet and the loss of advertising revenue due to the recession?

One answer comes from politicians in Wales who are calling for public funding for new community newspapers.

They believe, with some justification, that the widespread closures and redundancies amongst local newspapers have had a direct effect on the quality of information provided to local communities.

Their answer is to press for taxpayers to fund alternative sources of news, information and entertainment.

At one stage earlier this year, Manchester city council also seemed to be considering investing public money in local journalism, following repeated and prolonged cuts at the Guardian & Manchester Evening News Group.

That promising initiative seems to have disappeared – no doubt prompted by the looming spectre of public spending cuts.

Obviously, politicians would be on a sticky wicket in  justifying the investment in local newspapers, or community-based alternatives, when ‘front-line’ services are under threat.

But ask yourself what role, if any, your local council could play in helping provide unbiased, impartial local news coverage? Would municipal media represent the dead-hand of the state?

Would petty officialdom and their mountains of bureacracy always threaten to stifle controversy, the exposure of wrong-doing and the lively cut and thrust of debate about local matters, which is the lifeblood of the best local newspapers?

Does he who pays the piper always call the tune?

If not – and its a big ‘if’ – with the advent of the world wide web, can new mechanisms be constructed which guarantee both the independence of local journalism and its future sustainability?

Perhaps that is the real challenge for local newspaper journalism in the age of the internet and post recession.