I’ve worked on national newspaper for over a year and written exclusives and scandals. They’re great fun – but sometimes these stories – particulary in local papers – can be overcooked until they become meaningless drivel written in a forced tongue that distances the reader.

Ultra-local news which is understated and ”boring” will always be interesting to those people who come into contact with it regularly – however small that number of people is. This will also have no significance to people outside the area. It will only be valid for a small handful of people. This goes against all the business principles of current leading media organisations.

I think that thiere’s lots of potential for this to grow in the coming years. But I struggle to see how large media organisations can monopolise local blogs when the best thing about local blogs – like blogpreston – is that they are small, independent and unique, written by residents.

I think that another problem is the content. Young graduates are now more than ever they are relocating to new cities, travelling and partying. The last thing on their minds are things like the local bridge club having a new paint job.

The people who will read and write the blogs are slighlty older generations who are settled in the area. But they are also the ones with limited technical expertise and, like you said, writing training.

I definitely think that ultra-local blogs that are concerned with minute goings-on will flourish in one form or another.