Hamish Champ: Finally, the media is waking up

One of my responsibilities as City & Business editor of The Publican​ is to compile the Sunday newspaper round-up for the magazine's website.

Yes, while you're all tucked up snugly in bed doing whatever it is you do of a Sunday morning - and believe me, I try not to think - I am peering bleary-eyed at my computer screen trying to type in the day's news nuggets concerning the licensed trade.

Now I'm not sure whether it is a cause for celebration but in the three and a half years that I've been doing this particular task I've never noticed as much coverage of the trade as is the case today.

Sure, the industry's troubles make the sector regrettably newsworthy, but there is a sense that the ordinary member of the public's desire to see pubs stay open is being increasingly reflected in daily and weekend newspapers.

Aside from the usual rants from the equally usual quarters about excessive drinking and public disorder, what used to be called 'Fleet Street' is at last waking up the fact that pubs in the UK are under serious threat as the economy takes a turn for the worse and the government sticks the boot in once again.

The thing that has always amazed me is the journalists have always been aware of the fortunes of pubs, since hacks were long the lifeblood of many a boozer.

Sadly, however, we live in more puritanical times and the legendary lunchtimes of days gone by are sadly just that. Gone.

Still, three cheers for the media for at last cottoning on to what's going on.

We here at The Publican​ have long been calling for more to be done from the powers-that-be to help pubs through the current tough environment.

It now seems our clarion call is at last being taken up by the wider media, a step which surely can do the licensed trade no harm at all.