Quotes of the week

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter looks to the Daily Telegraph's MPs' expenses exclusive as an example of how newspapers can survive: "My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences."

George Dearsley: "Clever people talk of micro-blogging replacing local journalism. But what blogger will sit in Glossop magistrates court all day?"

Victor Keegan in TechnologyGuardian: "The recent lesson of music is: people will pay for content if it is accessible and affordable, even if there are free alternatives."

Leicester Mercury editor Keith Perch on its exclusive that local MP Patricia Hewitt was standing down at the next General Election: "Given the clamour of doomsayers who have been writing the obituary of local newspapers over the past few years, why do people like Ms Hewitt turn to papers like the Leicester Mercury when they have something to say? Clearly the fact that 170,000 people read the Mercury every day plays a big part in that - we are still the best way to talk to the people of Leicester."

NUJ Northern organiser Chris Morley writes to his local paper, the Halesowen News, over its decision to carry adverts for the BNP: "What is particularly worrying about the News giving the BNP an uncritical platform to promote itself is that it serves to bring down the good name of a reputable newspaper, while at the same time helping to instil fear among some parts of the community in which the paper circulates."