Eric Zorn on Lerner Community Newspapers

Really nice Eric Zorn piece this week on the slow, steady disappearance of Lerner-run community newspapers. I appreciate how in touch Zorn is with the nuances of community life and the importance of noting a passing such as this.

The Lerner people took community journalism just as seriously as those at the major papers take big-city journalism," said Greg Hinz, political editor of Crain's Chicago Business who was a political editor and columnist at Lerner earlier in his career. "Leo supposedly used to say that if someone dropped a nuclear bomb on the Loop, his lead sentence the next day would be, `Five windows broke at the corner of Lincoln, Belmont and Ashland yesterday when. .. .'"

I don't think the desire to read such deep local coverage will ever fade. After all, people are interested in what happens in their own backyards. I know that's why I got blogging about this stuff - to stop and smell the sidewalks.