Alex Lloyd continues our look in-depth look at the way the Evening Press is produced - and more VIPs tell us why local papers matter

MORE than 41,500 copies of the Evening Press are purchased across York and North Yorkshire every night, and getting the paper from the press and into the hands of its readers is a major operation.

Sales are the responsibility of Vickie Henderson, Head of Circulation and Marketing.

Her team of sales executives look after the 650 or so outlets which sell the paper every day, working closely with them about supply changes and sales initiatives.

As soon as the papers roll off the press, they are immediately loaded into our special Evening Press vans and delivered by a team of 22 day drivers, headed by Transport Manager Phil Stanyon.

The drivers drop off the day's papers at destinations as diverse as Marks & Spencer in York city centre, village newsagents and other shops around North and East Yorkshire, and a network of house agents who deliver our news to homes in the most remote parts of the circulation area.

The Evening Press has five sites in the city centre where every day our vendors keep up the tradition of the late Les Richardson, selling our newspaper to shoppers and workers in the centre of York.

Honesty boxes also make the paper available at other points in the city centre.

The power of the (local) press...

"Every day we wake up to the tragedy and sensationalism that dominates so much of our national media, leaving little room for the stories that reflect all the good that is being done by individuals and groups within our society. However, all around the UK local and regional newspapers work tirelessly to report local people's achievements in a way that national newspapers never could." Gary Lineker OBE

 "The local and regional newspaper industry doesn't get the attention it deserves." FT Creative Business

 "With 24 hour news coverage on TV and the electronic age of communications, local newspapers provide an eve more important function for their communities than ever before because they specialise in what is relevant to the local area, rather than the world view provided by the television news. Important community issues are addressed exceptionally well by local newspapers." Norman Pace, from comic duo Hale and Pace

 "The fact that the regional and local press is often the heartbeat of life across the UK is apparently forgotten inside the ivory towers of agency groups across London." Roy Jeans, managing director, Initiative Media and advertising controller of Unilever, the largest advertiser in the world

 "I absolutely adore local papers They are full of great stories and are extremely well written, they protect us quite wonderfully, and we can air our views in the letters pages, and they take up cudgels on our behalf, all the great causes, like the environment, conservation, cruelty to humans, cruelty to animals, keeping our towns clean and beautiful and protecting our canals and our wildlife.

"I feel local newspapers are increasingly important to fight bureaucracy from Brussels and Westminster. Like the parish council, they fight the corner of the small man.

"Over the 20 years the local reporters and photographers and editors have become my friends and it gives a feeling of safeness in the county to have you there. Also, the other thing about local papers, is one truly trusts them. They don't stitch you up, they check their facts, they don't have vendettas against people who are quite innocent and who never recover from these vendettas. I know they have to sell papers in Fleet Street, but I wish they had more of the morality of the local newspaper." Jilly Cooper - author

"The traditional role of serving the community has never been more important than it is today. It seems to me that people need a sense of community, a sense of belonging, now more than ever, and that regional newspapers help to meet that need." HM The Queen