A speech last week by the BBC’s head of news, James Harding, was badly received by newspaper publishers, as I reported, because he thinks the corporation needs to fill a reporting vacuum created by a dwindling industry.
This week, it was the turn of the chair of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, to consider the relationship between the BBC and the commercial press, talking of her concern about “the democratic deficit in local political coverage”.
She, like Harding, is eager for the BBC’s regional news teams to forge partnerships with local and regional papers. It yet may come to pass.
Meanwhile, taking no sides in this altercation, I have come across a story that shows just how effective traditional newsprint newspapers can be.
On Saturday, the Daily Post - the Trinity-Mirror paper that covers north Wales - carried a page 3 article and picture about a 90-year-old woman, Marion Brown, who has been told she must leave a care home in Denbighshire.
She was taken into the home in Corwen in December after going blind, which made it impossible for her to continue living alone. She suffers from severe arthritis, cannot walk unaided, or wash and dress herself.
Following an operation, she also needed drops six times a day to help restore some sight, something only a care home could do. In other words, she requires 24-hour care.
But Mrs Brown was given only temporary status and has since been told that it is Denbighshire county council policy not to grant permanent residency. So, in four weeks, she must go.
The council, which is seeking to cut the budget for in-house social care by £700,000 in two years, cannot offer her an alternative because the future of its other two care homes is also in doubt.
Instead, she was told she must try the “independent sector”. But the catch is that there are no private homes available in the Corwen area.
Mrs Brown’s daughter, Maggie*, was quoted by the paper as saying: “They want to chuck her out. She used to fundraise for them. And her sister and sister-in-law both stayed there. There is no other private home in this area”.
The Post’s story, which was carried also on its website, touched hearts, as one might expect. But it did more than that. It started a grassroots political storm.
Two miles from Corwen, in the village hall of Carrog where Mrs Brown was born, residents held a meeting on Monday and unanimously pledged their support for her.
What infuriated people was the decision by council officials to bar admittance to permanent residents - thereby effectively closing the homes - prior to any public consultation having taken place.
A campaign was launched to save the Corwen home. A petition was signed asking the council to reconsider its policy. And it was agreed to call a larger public meeting within weeks.
Huw Jones, a Plaid Cymru Denbighshire county councillor who lives in Corwen, has since demanded that Mrs Brown be allowed to stay at the home pending a review.
According to the Post’s reporter, Josh Morris, there has been low-level concern across the county about care home budget cuts for some time, but his single story has ignited the issue.
“People are passionate about this business now”, he said. “There is lots of public interest, so we’re bound to return to the story”.
For editors and journalists across the country, the reaction to this kind of story is probably nor surprising. This holding of power to account has been journalism’s raison d’etre. It is the whole point of the Fourth Estate.
Indeed, in Powys - one of Denbighshire’s neighbouring counties - it was the County Times that played a major role in exposing the council’s flawed outsourcing of social care visits, which led to the contract being cancelled.
The BBC could, of course, have covered the story (though whether it would have got the tip and then done anything about it is another matter).
What it would certainly find much harder than a newspaper to do is mount a campaign, partly due to impartiality rules, partly because of restrictive broadcasting time slots.
Properly resourced newspapers, whatever the platform, remain, for the present, the best way of fulfilling our journalistic mission.
*Full disclosure: Maggie Brown writes for the Guardian