The sale of 30 regional papers from the Guardian Media Group to their main rivals has shocked staff. The new owners have indicated that they will move all GMG Regional's northern operations to Oldham, leaving no editorial offices in Manchester, the historical home of the Manchester Guardian.
The sale raises further questions over the future of local papers- I'm praying today for all the staff who much now wait to hear about redundancies, and all of you working on local papers under difficult circumstances. I confess I am ambivalent about the necessity of their survival, never having read my local ones. However, I know many people are passionate about the community cohesion that local papers provide, not to mention their role in holding local government and business accountable. If they disappear then journalists will also have lost a traditional training route. What do you think?