A poll has revealed that the majority of the public believe that investigative journalism has a positive effect on democracy – yet does it have a future in a time of flagging newspaper sales and uncertain business models?

Too many people in the media are guilty of taking local newspapers for granted, Says Raymond Snoddy – but the local press is always with us and has admirably stood out from the crowd in recent weeks.

Let’s not get bogged down in the apparently small issues that separate the two royal charters. In the end we are talking principles – about the separation of powers between government and a free press in a democracy.

As the Privy Council is due to rule on the two Royal Charters governing press regulation, the Daily Mail’s editor Paul Dacre could not have chosen a worse week for his rush of poisonous blood to the head says Raymond Snoddy.

At the consumer end of the business, Virgin and Sky will fight like cats in a sack says Raymond Snoddy – but what is remarkable are the large areas of agreement between them. So what do they have to say about their future?

DR, Denmark’s small public service broadcaster, has produced monster hits including The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge. Raymond Snoddy asks how they have pulled this off – and after hearing the organisation’s director of cultural affairs talk at IBC in Amsterdam, finds the answers are both extreme and surprising.

As the BBC sinks into yet another crisis, the future of the BBC Trust remains in the balance. Should it simply be put out of its misery? The answer from Raymond Snoddy is an emphatic no.

As newsbrands experiment with new business models and witness real success, there is one heavyweight owner of top-notch newsbrands which continues to sit on its hands. It’s now time for News UK to nail its colours to the mast with real user and readership numbers says Raymond Snoddy.

After Kevin Spacey attracted headlines last week with his MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh, Raymond Snoddy looks in more detail at what he said – and wonders how much of a threat the likes of Netflix really pose to cable operators.

It would be heart warming, says Raymond Snoddy, if local TV were to establish itself and outlive the period of Government-imposed subsidy that will kick-start it. But to do so it will have to confront and overcome a number of harsh challenges.