The end of local papers could mean the end of local news
Posted by Carolyn Lo on March 25, 2008 at 12:11 PM
The Long Beach Press Telegram started off helping expand the LA Times empire in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1980s, the Long Beach Independent, the Telegram's afternoon counterpart, printed its last edition. Now it may be time for the Press Telegram to print its final edition because of the declining newspaper industry.
Last month, the Telegram combined with its neighboring daily, the Daily Breeze to cut costs. In maintaining profits, journalists were bought off or laid off.
The city of Long Beach has already complained to Media News that the Telegram isn't doing a good job of reporting the news and has threatened to pull its legal advertising, which would result in the paper's demise.
Though the effects aren't as glaring in larger papers, they are in smaller papers such as the Telegram, according to Dennis McDougal, former Telegram writer. He believes that now, mistakes of reporters make it into the print more frequently and newspapers shy away from investigative stories. If local papers continue to disappear, there would be no substitute for local reporters covering local news everyday in a local newspaper.
Source: LA Times through Poynter Online
Last month, the Telegram combined with its neighboring daily, the Daily Breeze to cut costs. In maintaining profits, journalists were bought off or laid off.
The city of Long Beach has already complained to Media News that the Telegram isn't doing a good job of reporting the news and has threatened to pull its legal advertising, which would result in the paper's demise.
Though the effects aren't as glaring in larger papers, they are in smaller papers such as the Telegram, according to Dennis McDougal, former Telegram writer. He believes that now, mistakes of reporters make it into the print more frequently and newspapers shy away from investigative stories. If local papers continue to disappear, there would be no substitute for local reporters covering local news everyday in a local newspaper.
Source: LA Times through Poynter Online
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For the record, the name of the South Bay paper is just the Daily Breeze.
It is not the South Bay Daily Breeze. The words South Bay are not part of the name.
I used to work there and I see this mistake all the time in blogs and reports from other papers.
It is annoying, especially since things like that are so easy to check.