Napoleon once dubbed Britain a "nation of shopkeepers" but with small businesses struggling to survive in the current recession, there could soon be no shops left.

And at the top of the list of those fighting to keep in business are traditional newsagents which have been further hit by falling newspaper sales, the smoking ban and fewer distributors.
Alarming new figures by the National Federation of Retail Newsagent (NFRN) show 58 of its members went out of business in the North West last year alone while nationally, the number was 510 - up from 482 the previous year.

In Preston, newsagents told the Evening Post how weekly business is down by as much as five per cent.
Alan May, who has run A May Newsagents for 20 years in Woodplumpton Road, Fulwood, says: "Life is getting more and more difficult
"Twenty years ago, I was a newsagent and that was it but now you can cross the road to the Bargain Booze and they have got all the papers too. I used to sell 100 papers a day and now it is about 50.
"I have also had issues with the Evening Post because they are giving them away for free on Saturday so people are coming in to cancel their Saturday paper. I have lost 20 to 30 customers on a Saturday."

The newsagent claims to have also been hit by newspapers promoting direct delivery services bypassing his service though the 60-year-old says there is still a healthy number of papers being sold through deliveries mainly to customers known for "donkey's years" though only a "small percentage" of customers are aged under 30.

But David Sturzaker, who has worked at Cop Lane Newsagents in Penwortham for the last 27 years, thinks newsagents are making too many excuses for failure. His business is around four to five per cent down on last year.

He says: "Obviously business has declined in the last year but we have just worked harder including that deliveries are right and papers are out on time.
"But I can't think of one good newspaper that has gone out of business - I can think of a lot of poor ones that have gone. It's very easy to blame everyone else rather than look at yourself."
Other newsagents have cited excuses including how the smoking ban has sparked a decline in cigarette sales, customers are going online to find news instead of buying papers though towards the top of the list is concern over the merger of distributors.

The latter has sparked a petition signed by almost 800 newsagents calling on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to protect competition in the news distribution industry.
There are fears that shop owners will be left with no alternative suppliers and vulnerable to increased costs. Already in Lancashire, Dawson News has warned that 43 jobs could be axed at its depot in Walton Summit, near Preston, because of the monopoly being formed by Menzies and Smiths in the region.

Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle, who is backing the campaign, says: "Traditional newsagents are the backbone of our community. They deliver a vital service and are a friendly face that many people rely on every day.
"It is shocking and unacceptable that so many newsagents face an uphill struggle to survive. I am happy to pledge my support."
Lancashire-based NFRN national president Suleman Khonat, who runs two newsagents in Blackburn, adds: "A newsagent is much more than a small business. We are a vital part of a local community.
"We are not calling for special treatment; we are simply asking to be given the same right to choose between competing suppliers that has underpinned British business for decades.
"If the OFT fails to afford us that right, then thousands of newsagents will effectively be at the mercy of monopolies. At a time when newsagents are already closing at a rate of more than one a day, I believe that this is simply unacceptable."

Hugh Evans, policy director of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, drew parallels between the plight of newsagents and pubs, which have been closing at a rate of one a month in Preston.
He says of the new figures: "This is bad news for newsagents and their customers.
"Like many other small independent shops and pubs newsagents play a vital role in our local communities and if we lose them they risk disappearing for good.
"This cannot be good for our local economy."

So, just as in the days of Napoleon when Britain was a "nation of shopkeepers", there are many fights ahead.
But instead of being on the battlefields of continental Europe, they are here at home in our local newsagents, pubs or other small businesses.