A word from the editor: Outpouring of love for local papers was refreshing and appreciated

Rumours of the Yorkshire Evening Post’s death were greatly exagerated (to paraphrase Mark Twain’s famous quote). Our title, as we told you last week, has got new owners. Instead of Johnston Press, we are now owned by JPIMedia Ltd, a private company rather than a public limited company.

Editor-in-Chief’s letter on new ownership of Johnston Press

For those in the newsroom and advertising departments of the YEP in Leeds this means little, other than our bylines, has changed and it’s business as usual for us, our online and print readers and our advertisers, contacts and suppliers.

That’s not to say there are not some questions to be answered or that there might be some changes further down the line. But what you might have seen in the wider media has been much speculation about what would happen if local newspapers disappeared from our lives. This has brought a lot of love, support and praise for us at the YEP, and our sister title and regional giant The Yorkshire Post as well as our weekly titles across Yorkshire. At times of uncertainty - and this Brexit deal or no deal game is one of them - there is much comfort in the day-to-day familiarity of our local communites.

The support for a local press that we have had directly at the YEP, and nationally in some of the coverage, goes to show that reporting the news from your local area, holding authorities to account, recording the comings and goings matter to you and that if we were not here there would be something missing in the fabric of society. The best way you can show this support is to continue to read this paper and others and continue to come to our websites too for your news and local advertising.