Newspapers are definitely living in a Dickensonian era, although I suspect many publishers are wondering when the “best of times” part will re-emerge.

Everywhere you look, newspaper companies are cutting expenses any way they know how, from moving to less expensive buildings and shuttering production facilities to trimming distribution and, sadly, cutting staff to the bone.

That last item is truly the “worst of times.”

Chuck Moozakis, Editor-In-Chief
Newspapers & Technology Magazine
 

And it also puts newspapers’ recently adopted strategy to become ever more local in a most precarious position.

How, one reasonably can ask, will the San Francisco Chronicle be able to write about the Bay Area now that its newsroom has been slashed by 25 percent?

What about The Denver Post? It is lopping off 37 positions, sending out the door most of its city-side columnists, its Washington correspondent as well as other veteran writers who intimately know the Mile High City.

Its JOA partner, the Rocky Mountain News, made its own series of cuts, leaving its readers without a film or TV critic, among other coverage gaps.

Neither the Chronicle nor the Denver papers are unique, unfortunately. Newspapers nationwide, whether publicly or privately owned, have no choice but to respond to the continuing economic challenges plaguing the industry.

So where does this leave the “All News Is Local” mantra?

Good question.

Will so-called citizen journalists fill the void? That’s a possibility, I suppose, but I’m reminded by Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg’s opinion of grassroots journalism, courtesy of American Journalism Review: “It’s like citizen surgery … very similar.”

I don’t think Mossberg is implying that a journalist’s skill is as critical as a surgeon’s, but the point that not just anybody can accurately cover an event is a valid one. It’s one thing to pen a story about the neighborhood’s potluck and garage sale; it’s quite another to keep a close eye on City Hall and on the police department.

The challenges are no different across the pond. I hope you’ll take a close look at our Page One exclusive coverage of News International and its $1 billion investment to upgrade its U.K. printing infrastructure. The company is setting the stage for how it will operate for decades to come, standardizing its plants with high-capacity, high-speed presses cloaked with automation. It’s also empowering its vendors: MAN Roland, Agfa, Sun Chemical, Ferag and others, to take more responsibility for maintenance and supply of their parts and management. Extending the supply change is something many other industries have done for years, and it’s interesting to see how a major publisher intends to tailor the strategy in its own plants.