The United Kingdom's National Union of Journalists has proposed an eight-point plan intended to support local news to Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, Press Gazette reported Tuesday.

The union's general secretary, Jeremy Dear, claimed the plan "could be implemented by government as a strategic and coordinated response to the decline in local media. Any action must focus on improving investment in local journalism - ensuring communities get the quality of news they deserve."

"Quality criteria" is the union's basis for media eligible for government aid, which takes into account requirements regarding a specified percentage of profits invested in editorial staff and sections, staff ratios, ratios of original content, promises to keep certain titles, and strict monitoring of work loads, according to Press Gazette.

The eight-point plan conisists of a stimulus plan including the following measures:

• Protecting the media against the negative effects of a "cross-media merger"
• New license fee regulations
• Requirements for news aggregators to pay for the content they use
• Tax cuts for local media organisations
• Tax credit for those who subscribe to local newspapers
• The sale of defunct local media titles to community trusts for a "nominal fee"
• Increased advertising by the governement
• Training courses offered to update hone the skills journalists need "or "modern newsrooms"

At the moment, 130 MPs are supporting a motion in parliament that "calls on the Government to explore innovative solutions to preserve local journalism and to ensure the state support, either in the form of deregulatory measures or financial help, is given only where guarantees on investment in local journalism are secured," Press Gazette reported.