THE Southport and West Lancashire editions of The Champion got a boost from an unexpected source this week; the world of blogging.

A last minute technical hitch is not exactly what you want on deadline day, and it meant this week's edition was looking chronically short of motoring copy, with no easy way of filling the gaps. Whichever way you cut it, an entire blank section in a weekly paper is not a good thing.

Step forward Life On Cars, my other blog, which is filled with car-related chatter and is - if only in most tenuous, vague of ways - affiliated to The Champion. Hence where there'd usually be a news piece about bumper stickers there's now a page on me rabbiting on about banger racing. Brilliant.

I know the elder statesmen of the journalism world go on about blogs being the death of reporting, but I honestly think that well-written blogs that actually convey genuine opinions or get into the nitty-gritty of a topic do papers the world of good.

Still not too sure about Twitter, though.

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