There has been a noticeable trend towards local news over national news in the mainstream media and whether this is a good trend or a bad trend is still up to debate. Local, local, local has been the mantra of every newspaper and television station other than the New York Times and a few other outlets of note. The economics behind that push are easy to see: A) people are at least interested in learning about things that are happening in their own communities because they can't find out about them anywhere else and B) you can get national news and analysis on the Internet for free, so why pay 75 cents for a newspaper with the same information?
The pitfalls of too much local, local, local have come into focus as a result. While people don't want to read about the underpinnings of the national credit crisis (when they can get it on www.wsj.com for free), they'll be more dismissive of your credibility as a news source if you run an article or piece on the cat-fashion show instead of the same AP story they can find on Yahoo.com.
We saw this a lot at the collegian where people did not want to read about national issues, but still faulted us for not running them on the front page. "Why do you have a story about a fraternity as the A-1 story when people are dying in Iraq," was a common complaint.
The answer from our perspective: "Because you can pick that story up in the NY Times, USA Today, or Boston Globe. But you won't find the story about the fraternity in any of those."
The same sort of complaints come up across newspaper Web site comment sections all the time: "Why are you covering this when there are so many important things across the world to report on."
Clearly, what the public expects of their news source is completely different from what the news source thinks its public needs.
Localization is the flip side and while you won't see it on those national outlets like the Times or USA Today, you ought to be seeing it with more frequency in your local newspapers. Figuring out a way to find a local angle on a big story is often the best way to keep your readers attracted while also making them look at the community around them.
Russia invades Georgia? Are there any Georgian or Russian expatriates around? What is there opinion? What is their take, their view and most important: what is their story?
Market crashes? How does it affect local investors? Find out by talking to small investment firms, tax companies, and financial advisors.
Taking the national and making it local can at times be daunting and require a stretch of the imagination from time to time, but it remains an effective package for bringing together all of the interests of your audience. They can still get that article on the massive funding cut for federally sponsored highway work on Yahoo.com, but they won't get the article on how that is going to delay the completion of the local interstate for another five years.
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