I can only imagine the reaction of former Johnson Press colleagues when absorbing recent messages from their chief executive Ashley Highfield about the future of the papers they work for.

The ambition to make local news a successful digital product has been talked about for more than a decade, but no regional publisher has yet to make money in this area. So one could be forgiven some scepticism when hearing lines about creating ‘platform neutral’ newsrooms. Mumsnet even gets a mention.

Anyone who has worked in the media in the last decade doesn’t need to be told of the changes that have hit the industry, or the need for it to adapt to them.

Some were calling for more investment in content creation across all ‘platforms’ – digital and print – when times were good and the papers which sustained publishing operations were being milked dry. Now times are tough, and companies like Johnson are struggling to catch up, with a share price of 6p and squashed between the continued flight of audiences to the internet and a decline in advertising.

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