Darlington councillor Nick Wallis has produced a thoughtful response to yesterday's blog about my concerns over council publications.

darlingtoncouncillor.blogspot.com

Nick, who has surprisingly withdrawn from the race to succeed Alan Milburn as the town's MP, suggests it's not as straightforward as I make out.

In fact, I totally accept that it's not straightforward. Indeed, there are some difficult conflicts for local authorities when it comes to their communications strategy.

I've known newspapers which have blindly set out to wage a war with their local councils, irrespective of whether it was warranted.

In my book, it's all about balance. Praise when appropriate, criticise when necessary.

We don't want newspapers which are entirely negative about public bodies just for the sake of it.

Nor do we want councils putting out publications which pretend that public bodies are flawless.

My point really is that there is an important debate to be had about all of this.

One correction to Nick's blog, my comments did, in fact, flag up the commercial threat to newspapers by councils pursuing advertising to offset the costs of their publications.

Advertising is what local papers depend on to survive - and it's a hard enough market without publicly-funded newspapers and magazines becoming competitors.

I hope none of this comes across as a whinge or sour grapes.

I'm just a passionate believer in the value of local newspapers and I happen to believe that Darlington is lucky to have a paper like The Northern Echo.

It's an important local employer, it has a rich tradition, and is a crucial part of Darlington. It must not be taken for granted.