Pembroke Ladies Probus Club welcomed Mr. Andy Adamson as guest speaker to their September meeting.

Andy is the General Manager of the Tenby Observer and his talk was entitled ‘Local News in the Digital Age’.

Andy addressed the sustainability of national and local newspapers when faced with strong competition from online news and social media sites.

In an age of instant reporting with pictures and comments appearing online as events happen he expressed concern over the future of weekly newspapers in particular.

However he did feel that as long as local people and businesses contributed they will survive in some form and felt many older people still preferred to access their news by hard copies.

Some of the ladies thought that the lack of newspaper boys and girls might have contributed to the drop in circulation figures and that the sale of newspapers in supermarkets rather than local newsagent may be another factor.

According to Andy two things are certain when discussing the demise of the newspaper.

Firstly it is definitely easier to attempt a crossword or sudoku in a paper than online and secondly you cannot swat a fly with anything other than a newspaper.

Ann Lowe giving the vote of thanks praised Mr. Adamson for an informative and entertaining talk.

The next meeting will be at Lamphey Court Hotel on October 17 when Rob James will be the speaker.