Summary: "The story of a local newspaper and the community it serves"; the example chosen as typical is the Newbury Weekly Advertiser.
Description: A brief portrait of the market town of Newbury and the area round it, "an ordinary country community of industrious hardworking people", prefaces the film. After 'introductions' to the editor and his chief reporter, the various ways the paper acquires news are suggested: information is volunteered; reporters cover scheduled events or are tipped off by fire-station etc; part-time reporters cover more remote areas. The paper's independence is suggested by assurances of the impartial coverage of the Magistrate's court trial of a prominent citizen on a traffic offence; its active involvement in local affairs by its interest in council reactions to demands for traffic lights on a problem road junction. The various stages of getting the paper to press (including advertising, and insertion of a late report on a council meeting) and of distribution are shown: such papers "are an essential and democratic part of everyday life in Britain."
