David Cameron’s first major cabinet reshuffle has placed conservative MP Maria Miller at the helm of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as former minister Jeremy Hunt moves on to head the Department of Health.

The appointment, which was announced yesterday, has elicited mixed feedback from mainstream media. Some welcome the ‘fresh pair of eyes’ at the DCMS, while others question her capacity to take over the shrinking department, particularly in light of her additional role as minister for women and equalities. Miller, who had worked as an executive for Greys Advertising before becoming an MP for Barrington in 2005, is expected to prioritise the roll-out of superfast broadband across the country, which Hunt had promised to achieve by 2015, and will also have to deal with recommendations arising from the final report of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards. DCMS itself is scheduled to release a new Communications Act before the election after having scrapped its green paper in favor of policy seminars on communications regulation.

The low profile MP, who was previously under-secretary of state for work and pensions, will also have to confront serious media regulatory issues, among them the ongoing consolidation across regional press and the current service provider disputes over spectrum allocation for 4G mobile services.

Many will be asking what the change means for local TV. Ofcom has thus far received 57 bids for 19 local TV stations which are planned for set-up around the UK over the next two years.  Local TV is the policy more than any other viewed as Jeremy Hunt’s personal project and it has been dogged by doubts about financial viability and political impartiality. It remains to be seen if Miller’s role will be to deliver the policy, or quietly to shelve it.