The relationship between local authorities, the press and the public has long been a subject of interest and concern. A survey concluded by NALGO in 1957 showed that eighty-one per cent of respondents followed council affairs by reading newspaper reports of council meetings. More recently, studies by Dr Dilys Hill and by Anthony Barker and Michael Rush have stressed the importance of the local press as a medium of information for both the public and for Members of Parliament, whilst Ian Jackson has shown the degree to which press content reflects the assumed values of the communities served by local newspapers. Official concern was manifested in the reports of the Committee on the Management of Local Government (the Maud Committee) and the Committee on Public Participation in Planning (the Skeffington Committee). This is a study of the relationships between four urban local authorities and their local press, and is centred upon the effects of opening meetings of council committees to the representatives of the press. The research aimed at discovering whether improved press communication resulted from open committee meetings, in terms of the quantity of information transmitted to the public by way of their local newspapers.