I was the sole reporter for 3 weeklies in the San Luis Valley. I am, in fact, arguing for the sake of arguing.
One week they sold an extra ad and I had to fill up 4 pages at the last minute. I dug out the old issues from the morgue (a shelf in the back room) and created a feature called "100 years ago in the Del Norte Prospector" and copied from that issue verbatim. It was even more boring than the new stuff. Also, I stole a couple of stories from the Monte Vista and Center papers and put them in the South Fork and Creede editions. I was up for 36 hours trying to finish it in time. The front page story was about the progress of the highway project on Wolf Creek Pass, and it featured a picture of a bulldozer. I would've given my eyeteeth for an AP feed, but it was all the way in Alamosa. This was pre-internet days, too
I was going to be a stringer for the Rocky Mountain News, but my publisher was an idiot and wouldn't let me because he thought they wanted to siphon off his ad revenue
I read "real" papers, and the front sections are usually pretty good unless they're the same old tired conservative bashing. Even Le Monde -- just to get the frog version of our Democratic Party's talking points. But I stand by most of my numbers. There is no fluff as diabetic as the NYT society pages. I'd rather read about a small town guy who finally pulled together the loan to open his fishing shop. That I can relate to. Not "Mrs. Covington-Smythe (nee Walford) enjoys the companionship of chairman of the Committee to Resurrect Flapper Hats for AIDS in Africa Blansfield Xavier DuPont, of the Wallingshirefordbury DuPonts. A good time was had by all at the event, which cost $50,000 to attend and featured a cash bar."