Newspapers have grown decreasingly diverse over time as they have concentrated more and more on regurgitating wire stories, with human interest non-news, opeds, and fill-in-the-blank local reportage as padding. Very little of the content in papers is legitimately new reporting or investigative journalism. As wire reports etc. have become available cheaper, faster, and more conveniently through the internet and TV the dubious nature of the "value add" of news papers has become more and more apparent.
That news papers have become utterly dependent on advertising in an age when print advertising is dying is a separate phenomenon which has effectively sealed the fate of most papers. Few papers are willing to accept the notion that they cannot survive without dramatic, fundamental changes. They would rather live with the fantasy that it's just not possible or that profitability is just a few little insubstantial tweaks away.
If papers dumped their standing armies of news regurgitators, got lean, and concentrated solely on local news and investigations, they might have a chance of surviving in the modern, ultra-connected world. But few are willing to make such dramatic changes, so we will see a lot of papers die before this all gets sorted out.
That news papers have become utterly dependent on advertising in an age when print advertising is dying is a separate phenomenon which has effectively sealed the fate of most papers. Few papers are willing to accept the notion that they cannot survive without dramatic, fundamental changes. They would rather live with the fantasy that it's just not possible or that profitability is just a few little insubstantial tweaks away.
If papers dumped their standing armies of news regurgitators, got lean, and concentrated solely on local news and investigations, they might have a chance of surviving in the modern, ultra-connected world. But few are willing to make such dramatic changes, so we will see a lot of papers die before this all gets sorted out.