The Monroe Times always has made local news a priority. When we did our redesign back in November 2006, that emphasis was ratcheted up.
Lately, wire news on news pages has been nearly non-existent. The smaller size of pages and a recent push to get a growing number of "Community" page items in more quickly has on many days left us without a "wire" page - where stories and briefs from The Associated Press are published. Today, outside of including AP news of state storms with our local report from Thursday, and a short story on Page A2 about the Supreme Court's decision on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, there are no other Associated Press stories in the Times. There have been many days like that lately.
Frankly, that bothers me, because I think "wire" news helps complete a newspaper's content. But the realities of the industry, the marketplace, and the customers' demands dictate that local news almost always trumps news from elsewhere - sometimes at the expense of not getting in any news from elsewhere at all.
What are your thoughts about that?
Lately, wire news on news pages has been nearly non-existent. The smaller size of pages and a recent push to get a growing number of "Community" page items in more quickly has on many days left us without a "wire" page - where stories and briefs from The Associated Press are published. Today, outside of including AP news of state storms with our local report from Thursday, and a short story on Page A2 about the Supreme Court's decision on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, there are no other Associated Press stories in the Times. There have been many days like that lately.
Frankly, that bothers me, because I think "wire" news helps complete a newspaper's content. But the realities of the industry, the marketplace, and the customers' demands dictate that local news almost always trumps news from elsewhere - sometimes at the expense of not getting in any news from elsewhere at all.
What are your thoughts about that?
