GANNETT HAS A PROBLEM, AND HERE IS A SOLUTION

Gannett, the giant US media company, has blamed its 8.3% decline in second-quarter earnings partially on its British operation, Newsquest. The company's chairman and chief executive, Craig Dubow, told analysts yesterday that Gannett's strength in its American community papers was offset by "continued soft ad demand" at Newsquest, Britain's third-largest regional newspaper chain with 216 titles.

As a regular reader of one of these UK papers when we live in our house in Wales, I can tell you that since that paper belongs to Gannett:

1. Has improved its advertising operations (and sales, I imagine)

2. The real news content is not worse or better than before but needs to be improved a lot.

My advice is obvious:

Give more and better local news and the rest will come.