Praized Blog quotes an LA Times article:
News organizations confronted with declining revenue and increased competition are entering an era of more limited ambition in which they will drop a broad worldview for more narrowly focused reporting, according to an annual review of the news business being released today by a watchdog group.
Why does focusing on local equate to “reduced ambitions”?
I’ve spent my entire news career in what is now called “hyperlocal.” I can’t think of any higher journalistic calling. That’s not to say it’s higher than national or foreign coverage, but there is nothing especially golden about being a beltway reporter, except that we have perversely elevated these people to star status.
[…] Howard Owens found a quote in today’s LA Times equating city papers’ increased local coverage as a result of an “era of limited ambition.” Without even looking, I’ll guess that this was scribbled by the Times kool-aid-drinking meta-critic, James Rainey. (UPDATE: good guess). More on State of the Media 2007 at Editor’s Weblog and Poynter. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]