My research builds on my career as a journalist to focus on local journalism as a practice, process and presence. I am a leading scholar of the local newspaper and have traced its development as a distinctive media form, using an historicised political economic approach. This enables the interrogation of the function of the local journalism in its contemporary context. My current focus is on local newspaper archives and their relevance to heritage, communities and the newspaper industry; I am leading a project funded by The National Archives to develop a network and toolkit to support those working with records relating to the local newspaper. This contributes to my advocacy for the wider cultural significance of local media; my most recent publication for the Journal of the British Academy outlines how involvement in these archives demonstrates the community value of the legacy local newspaper.  I also collaborate internationally to develop the field and am affiliated to the Jonkoping International Business School in Sweden.