A rush of MPs

The campaign is gathering momentum. Laura is haring round the country having chapel meetings with members. Today we have collected another 16 MPs who support the cause. Eight from the Anglia region and the entire compliment of MPs in the Border region.

ITV's turnaround plan - a U-turn to disaster

The NUJ and colleagues from other Unions met ITV plc this morning to discuss national issues. Top of the agenda for the NUJ was the damaging proposals to abandon commitments to local news on ITV. Senior executives held the party line. No-none wants to be disloyal to the current leadership. Despite the fact that they all followed a different mantra a matter of months before. Tonight, ITV is hosting a jolly at the labour party conference. Given the support we have had from across all parties since these plans were announced, I suspect it will not be an entirely happy event for ITV.

Less news but more Ads for ITV ?

Interesting news in Saturday's Times (Sept 22) which says Ofcom is set to fall in line with the rest of the EU and allow ITV to broadcast 9 minutes of ads per hour compared to the current 7 - that's a 28.5% increase (their maths not mine). Now wasn't the argument being made by some senior ITV figures only recently that if there was more advertising then they would use some of it to pay for the regional news service? That's the very same regional news service which, we were told, made us distinctive from the other 300 odd channels. Here in the sunny South East we've been heartened by support from MPs of all parties, one of whom is putting down an EDM when parliament goes back. We've also done the rounds of local papers making our case and were encouraged to get this from one of our viewers:- "I had no idea until I saw your letter that plans were proposed to change the Meridian Tonight programmes - there must be someone in ITV who sits and plans out who they can upset next! I am enclosing copies of my email to PSBReview and to our local MP, David Lepper. Thank you for bringing this stupid idea to my attention - I hope we win". In addition we've enlisted the help of a friendly PR agency who are contacting all local business leaders, and we're making sure all reporters canvass MPs whenever they come across them in the day job. If there is a General Election soon it may be worth getting all regional journalists in ITV to point out this will be the last time they get such extensive coverage. 'We're not going without a fight'

e-petition gets more than 500 in

I'm not normally a fan of petitions, however they can be great to use in campaigns. The save itv news petition at the No. 10 Downing Street site has amassed 585 signatures in three days which is remarkable as it had not been widely publicised.

NUJ campaign to save itv news

It was on September 12th that the news of ITV's planned retreat from Public Service Television was announced. The plan would be devastating for NUJ members and the public, involving, as it does the complete abandonment of local news on the channel and its replacement with a regional service which has no connection with viewers . We have set this blog up for all who care about their news on ITV.