Several community papers are on the ropes, including the Morinville and Jasper papers,
prompting a Globe and Mail online poll: Is a local
newspaper important? The question follows a recent U.S.
poll that found local
papers won’t be missed by many.

Whether the day’s tidings appear in newsprint, on a cell
phone or hammered into a stone tablet, the more operative question might be: is
local news important? With hyper-local blog
sites blooming, clearly people still want news of community happenings, no
matter who delivers it. The New York Times is one of several papers that have responded by launching neighbourhood-level
blogs.

“Local is pretty much where we believe our future is,”
says Tampa Tribune senior editor Dennis Joyce in Lessons from Tampa
about local news. How you define ‘local,’ how to network local news
globally, and how to re-organize a newsroom around local reporting are hot
topics in J-Source’s Community
Journalism Online portal, edited by Robert Washburn.