With elite papers, such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times cutting staff, the few "No. 2" papers left are struggling to survive.

A No. 2 paper "usually keeps the dominant daily on its toes," writes Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, by reporting overlooked stories, which are typically more popular in poorer neighborhoods.

The only major cities left with head-to-head competition, excluding those where two papers have the same owner or share business operations with federal approval, are New York, Washington, Chicago, and perhaps Los Angeles, according to Kurtz. The Cincinnati Post is the latest second-place paper to close, when its operations shut down last year.

The Boston Herald's, Boston's No. 2 paper, daily circulation shrunk to 203,000 and on Sunday, it fell to 113,000, in comparison with the Boston Globe's 384,000. The Herald only has 10 city reporters left in addition to those in the feature, business, and sports sections.

"It's almost as if Boston doesn't have a place for its second daily anymore," Boston magazine columnist Joe Keohane wrote, "particularly one that features a constant parade of pervs, solons, swindlers, bums and punks."

Kevin Convey, the Herald's editor says, "The Globe is more likely to write a story about how some government program is going to assist the poor and downtrodden. We're more likely to suggest it's a boondoggle that ought to be bounced off the face of the Earth."

Tabloids are more irreverent and prone to report on big names and scandals (a headline for former governor Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the presidential race was "MITT HAPPENS.") But with blogs unconcerned about newsprint costs, there appears to be little room left for tabloids. And with cities such as Boston becoming more "upscale," it is a question whether tabloids are desired anymore.

"Tabloids in some cases say what other papers only think," says Convey. But, "a lot of people find tabloids to be beneath them. In Boston, where the air is a bit more rarefied and you're closer to Harvard, some people have a problem with tabloids. I think there's a certain nobility in tabloids."

"I don't think it's that Massachusetts has become snootier. The old Herald readers are just leaving the state. The blue-collar exodus has affected the paper," says Herald columnist Howie Carr.

The Herald depends on street sales for three-quarters of its circulation. It shut down its Washington bureau, has old presses that break down, and a 125 person staff that struggles to cover the suburbs or out-of-town reports. Moreover, the Herald plans to outsource its printing and move out of its headquarters into rented space. However, it does not plan on changing its snarky tone.

"I don't think it's time to give up the ghost," Convey says.

The Globe, which won a Pulitzer for arts criticism this month, is not thriving either. The paper, has already cut jobs and accepted buyouts. Its only remaining foreign and domestic correspondents are in Washington.

"We're facing the same challenges everyone else is, trying to figure out what the future of the newspaper is going to look like," says Globe editor Martin Baron. "We have become more local. We have significantly scaled back what we do outside the Boston area. We're realists here. We realize the business is changing."

Source: WashingtonPost.com