Next meeting of the Local News Campaign, May 19th, 6.00pm

Thanks to everyone who participated in and helped organise the Local News Campaign public meeting on March 19th. We have had very positive feedback from that meeting and we hope as many of you as possible will come to the next Local News Campaign meeting, at 6.00pm Thursday May 19th in the Panel Room, Oxford Town Hall, St Aldates.



Following the public meeting, Peter McIntyre and I had a meeting with Steve Taschini the station manager at BBC Oxford to discuss the Campaign’s proposal for a local editor’s forum, where members of the public could meet editors of all local press and broadcast news media on a regular basis.



The suggestion was met with a very positive response – “you’re knocking at an open door” – and we are now keen to fix up similar meetings with other news editors.



Barbara Dakin, editor of the Banbury Guardian, has asked whether the Campaign would be prepared to organise a public meeting in Banbury along the lines of the one held in Oxford.



Agenda for the next meeting, plus report of the March 19th public meeting

At the meeting on May 19th, we need to plan the next steps for the Campaign, devise a strategy for widening its base of support among community-based organisations and the general public, plan the production of a leaflet for community groups with advice about developing press contacts, and agree revisions to the five points defining what the Campaign stands for, in line with the discussion at the end of the public meeting



I attach

1. A draft agenda for the next meeting of the Local News Campaign

2. A report of the Oxford public meeting of March 19th, and

3. A summary of a discussion about the Campaign that went out the day before the public meeting on Radio Oxford’s Bill Heine phone in





A stall at Levellers Day, May 14th – can you help?

Levellers Day, held annually in Burford to commemorate three Leveller soldiers who were executed in Burford Churchyard, focuses this year on The Media as a Political Weapon, and we will have a chance to mention the Campaign from the platform.



This would be an excellent opportunity to spread information about the Local News Campaign and to ask people to sign up in support. Please let me know if you can attend and help out any time between 9.30 and 5.00pm on the day. Levellers day is a relaxed open air event in beautiful surroundings, so it should be an enjoyable day. We can share transport.



Tickets are £10, with £5.00 concessions, but the campaign should be able to cover the costs of people helping out on the stall. More information can be found at www.levellers.org.uk.