Deborah Meaden of Dragons' Den who is supporting the Newspaper Society's Local Business Accelerators campaign

Today the EDP can reveal the six small businesses in the running to win a package of three months of free advertising.

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The advertising package is part of a nationwide Local Business Accelerators campaign run by the Newspaper Society – the umbrella body for the newspaper industry – to show support for start-up and small businesses across the UK.

The project was launched in October and backed by prime minister David Cameron and Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden. The EDP asked Kevin Horne, chief executive of the enterprise agency and chairman of the Future50 entrepreneurs project, to help select six finalists from the Norfolk entries. The finalists include three from the EDP’s Future50 project and three other small businesses:

Comms Consulting;

Indigo Swan;

Fountain Partnership;

The Wharf;

Co-dunkall;

Let Us Entertain You.

The finalists are drawn from different economic sectors: from Co-dunkall in the construction and renewables and The Wharf in music tuition, to Let Us Entertain You, the hospitality firm behind the restaurant Farmer Browns in Norwich’s Tombland.

Future50 members Comms Consulting and Indigo Swan are brokerages for telecom and energy supplies while Fountain Partnership is a growing digital and search engine optimisation agency.

The winners of the free advertising will be announced in January. Each region’s winners go forward to a national competition and the chance of being mentored by Ms Meaden through 2012.

Paul Hill, Archant Anglia business editor, said: “We know that the economic outlook is uncertain. But our printed and online pages are a powerful way of taking products and services to potential customers. We want to help small businesses through these tough times and we want East Anglian firms to thrive.

“This project demonstrates our commitment to the business community.”

shaun.lowthorpe@archant.co.uk