Goodbye, daily newspapers in Detroit

[Undertoad]

AP sucks worse than most newspaper reporters.

We haven't had much true journalism anywhere in the system for some time now. Most local newspapers reprint a combination of information anybody can get, and information fed to them by people wanting publicity or stories.

Half the "real" news is not from reporters calling people, it's from people calling reporters. This information will move to wherever the eyeballs are.

Aside from the real news from NYT and WaPo, we simply aren't losing that much actual news from newspapers. Here are the Philadelphia Inquirer front page stories from Monday (yesterday):

1. Suburban school districts are finding it harder to get extra money from fund-raisers and so can't afford the special "extras" outside their traditional budgets. Unavailable due to cuts: chamber music coaches, Arabic teachers, smartboards. Not news: the precious snowflakes will have to learn the basics for a while.

2. Pakistan to reinstate chief justice. an AP story, and not a very important one. News failure: the importance of Pakistan's chief justice will be lost on all but 1% of readers, and there are about 50 more important stories in the region.

3. Storage unit auctions on the rise. When people abandon their rented storage units, the contents are auctioned all at once. Happening more often right now. A hard-working reporter wasted time to bring you this front-page item.

4. Fumo trial status. Highly-visible local corrupt politician gets closer to his jail sentence. News.

5. AIG lists payouts from its bailout. Washington Post story. News.

What do you miss by the loss of the Inquirer, the biggest daily in the 5th largest city? Two actual news stories, one which appears nationally anyway, and a local one which can wait for the trial's verdict. One item which doesn't mean much to anyone. And two "non-news" stories of little importance to anyone.