FWIW, I have been running a local newspaper (both digital and print) for the last five years. There is _no_ competition to speak of whatsoever. There are papers allright, but practically none of them make serious journalism, they just do whatever it takes to stay afloat.

That’s the crux of the issue – there is fierce competition in the ad industry where almost everything is swallowed by the big players, but they don’t deliver the service the local media did. At all. I would love to be superseded by a better newspaper, but that’s not what’s happening.