The Effects of the End of Local Newspapers
By The creator of two of the five best series in modern television history notes one area where the impact will be particularly baleful:
In an American city, a police officer with the authority to take human life can now do so in the shadows, while his higher-ups can claim that this is necessary not to avoid public accountability, but to mitigate against a nonexistent wave of threats. And the last remaining daily newspaper in town no longer has the manpower, the expertise or the institutional memory to challenge any of it.
It seems highly doubtful that this is a gap that blogs will be able to fill.